Kentucky Court of Appeals Rules You Can Be Billed For Jail Costs Even If Found Innocent

[AnGrYcRoW]

I think this safely falls under the category of Evil

 

[AnGrYcRoW]

No, this is like "rent" for them housing you. This jail charges the prisoner $10 a day to keep you in jail. If you don't have the money when you get released to pay the housing bill, the bill goes to a collection agency.
So in this case they dropped the charges after 14 months, 100% innocent. Then the jail sends him a bill for his incarceration. He appealed the bill, and the Appeals court ruled it was constitutional for the jail to do this even though he was found 100% innocent. Pay up.
What's absurd is that he didn't even have a court trial, plea bargain, nothing. They dropped the charges. They took 14 months of this mans life away and then sent him a bill for it.

Isn't it conceivable that if he can't pay he ends up back in jail ?

 

[M3t4tr0n]

Wouldn't want the prison industrial complex to lose money would we

 

[oldshadow]

Sounds stupid as hell to me. Sounds like something the ACLU should be fighting.

 

[Dober4]

Wouldn't want the prison industrial complex to lose money would we

I live in Ohio and have unfortunately been to jail countless times in multiple cities and have never had this happen. I even had a court pay extra to send me to a city jail for a probation violation because they knew if I went to county I would be immediately released.

This case is obviously a travesty but I think it’s an anomaly. I could be wrong though.

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

The prison industrial complex is fucking disgusting.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

I live in Ohio and have unfortunately been to jail countless times in multiple cities and have never had this happen. I even had a court pay extra to send me to a city jail for a probation violation because they knew if I went to county I would be immediately released.

This case is obviously a travesty but I think it’s an anomaly. I could be wrong though.

Why were you in jail countless times in multiple cities?

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

Greatest country in the world!

 

[tonni]

Good. Can’t pay the fine don’t do the crime.

...wait

 

[Magooglie]

Ah, the real America!

 

[ToxicShocker]

Yeah, I'd immediately counter sue.

are you the state?

 

[skysolo]

So many threads whining about the 2nd amendment because some politician wants to limit assault weapons.

But this ruling goes right against the 8th amendment and only one thread. Clearly a cash grab against poor and the disenfranchised.

 

[The XL]

The US is an oligarchy. You have no rights, you're ruled by unelected bureaucrats.

 

[ocfightfan]

That's insane. So all you have to do is be falsely accused and you are on the hook for the costs of dragging you through the shit? What do the people of Kentucky pay their damn taxes for?

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

At least it's not how it used to be where they wouldn't let you out of jail until you paid so if you couldn't pay you would just sit in jail forever accruing more costs.

 

[Dober4]

Why were you in jail countless times in multiple cities?

mostly petty theft used to have a bit of a oxy addiction, this was all 10 years ago.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Paying ransom to your kidnappers?

 

[Quipling]

There are groups that help fund for this sort of thing though. Some lawyers will take the case on pro bono or only take a cut if the defendant wins.

Granted, if there are a lot of cases clogging up the dockets for this, free defense teams may be hard to come by after a while. But, if they continuously win, the state may have to reconsider their stance.

Contigency cases are mostly brought by plaintiffs, and never for cash values this small. The amount listed is a day or two of billed hours for me, and even an easy case generally takes more than that.

Now, you could convert this into a 1983 case and seek attorney fees from the government- @Lord Coke does this. But you need to have a really good shot at success for that to be worthwhile, and a wrongful imprisonment case is really hard to make out, even if there's an appealing irony in bringing it. There might be a shot under a due process or excessive fines theory, though.

So what do you propose they do? Pay the costs and deal with it?

Some situations don't have an easy solution. A lot of businesses do just that when the amount is smaller than an attorney would cost. Think of it like a bullshit traffic ticket you got while driving in another state.