Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Criminal Justice Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee approves raising booking fee for convicted defendants from $20 to $40
Summary
The committee passed SB237 to increase the post-conviction booking/administration fee from $20 to $40 and earmark funds for jail training and facility maintenance. Sheriffs argued revenue addresses chronic shortfalls; members warned about cumulative fines burdening people reentering society.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to pass SB237, a bill that increases the booking and administration fee that convicted persons pay when booked into county jails from $20 to $40. Sponsor Senator Caldwell said the change updates a fee that has not been raised in more than a decade.
Sheriffs and jail administrators testified the revenue would be used for law-enforcement training and jail maintenance. Sheriff Rodney Wright said a portion will be sent to the state's law-enforcement training academy to fund training for jail personnel; other portions would address maintenance and operational costs in county jails.
Scott Bradley, director of the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association, said a survey of sheriffs showed booking fees collected roughly $1 million statewide in 2016–17. Committee members and county officials discussed how the fee is applied: witnesses said it is imposed after conviction for class A misdemeanors and felonies.
Several members said the state daily reimbursement to counties for housing state inmates (cited as $30 per day) has not covered actual county costs. Committee members gave examples of county per-inmate costs — $45–$51 per day in examples from Craighead and Crawford counties — and urged the legislature to review county jail reimbursement levels in the interim. Some senators supported the fee increase as a modest step to fund training and offset local costs; others cautioned about the cumulative effect of adding fees on people who have recently been convicted.
The committee voted to pass SB237 as amended.
What comes next: SB237 proceeds out of committee; sponsors and sheriffs said funds will go to training and jail maintenance and that interim work should examine state reimbursement rates.
