Minnesota Lawyer Staff
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has determined that Olmsted County may require a convicted offender to pay the costs of confinement that accrued before the offender was convicted.
The defendant spent eight months in an Olmsted County jail before being pleading guilty to three changes of aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 78 months in prison and transferred to a state correctional facility. The county charged the defendant $25 per day for room and board for the time spent in the jail.
The defendant filed an action seeking a declaration that he is not required to pay the amount he was charged for the cost of his confinement prior to being convicted. An Olmsted County District Court judge granted summary judgment to the county, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Minnesota Stat. sec. 641.12, subd. 3(a), allows a county to charge room and board for an offender convicted of a crime and confined in the county jail. The defendant argued, however, that during the time spent in jail he was not “an offender convicted of a crime. “
The court rejected the argument, comparing the situation to that found in another provision in the same statute, subdivision 1. That provision specifically allows the county to require those who are booked for confinement at a jail to pay a fee of up to $10 to the sheriff’s department. The fee is payable immediately but is returned if the person is acquitted of the charges.
“Like subdivision 1, subdivision 3(a) allows a county board to require only a person who is ultimately convicted of an offense to pay costs of confinement,” wrote Judge Randolph Peterson. “In the absence of any language that demonstrates a contrary intent, we conclude that subdivision 3(a) should be interpreted consistently with subdivision 1 to permit a county board to require a convicted offender to pay confinement costs that accrued before conviction. “
The decision is Jones v. Borchardt.
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