BY ANDY TAYLOR
INDEPENDENCE — Sheriff Robert Dierks wants to sharpen his incisors and put a bigger bite on former jail inmates who owe money for a variety of services incurred during their incarceration.
At Monday’s meeting of the Montgomery County Commission, Dierks and Jimmy Holt, Department of Corrections coordinator, revealed the total costs of jail inmate services that have yet to be reimbursed. Most of those costs involve medical care, including hospitalization, that was provided to the inmates during their stint in the county jail.
Holt said Montgomery County pays the medical bills owed to clinics or hospitals. However, the inmates are expected to reimburse the county for the medical care they receive.
There is a major flaw in the system, commissioners were told: the curernt reimbursement is weak, with little way for the inmates to effectively reimburse the county. About $222,000 in unreimbursed services remains owed to the Department of Corrections by the former inmates ever since the current jail was built in 1990.
“There’s no bite in the system right now,” said Dierks, adding that the Department of Corrections sends monthly statements to the inmates following their release from jail. “We need to put some teeth into the process.”
Holt said that he has examined several options for inmate reimbursement, including hiring area attorneys to use the judicial process to seek money from the former namtes, contracting with collection agencies to collect the money, or further using existing staff to issue monthly statements. So far, the Department of Corrections’ staff has collected only $1,078.91 from former inmates.
Dierks suggested that inmates bear the burden of the costs as part of their jail sentence and/or probation. It would be similar to the way the judicial system mandates violators to pay their court costs as part of their punishment.
“The court costs have to be paid off, so why can’t the medical costs be paid off, too?” Dierks asked.
Dierks said he would talk to the chief administrative judge of th 14th Judicial District, which includeds Montgomery and Chautauqua counties, to see if the courts can require the reimbursement of inmate medical care.
How do existing jail inmates reimburse the county for medical care or commissary purchases? Holt said money given to existing inmates (families of inmates sometimes provide money to their incarcerated relatives to buy items in the jail commissary) is split 50/50 between the inmate and the jail. Should an inmate owe money for their medical care or commissary items, then one half of the money they receive from family members immediately is used to reimburse the county for those services, he said.
Even with a 50/50 system of reimbursement, the Department of Corrections has yet to collect $29,421.79 from current inmates, Holt said.
In many cases, medical care that is necessary for inmates is because of pre-existing medical conditions. However, many inmates abuse that system, knowing they can receive medical exams and medication without ever paying a dime for them.
“The message should be clear that the Montgomery County Jail is not the place to come and expect your free annual checkup,” said commission chairman Tony Fowler.
In other business transacted at Monday’s commission meeting, the commission:
• learned that a weekend auction of surplus county vehicles and equipment generated a total of $14,972.50.
• voted 2-1 to seek bids for the purchase of a pre-owned vehicle for the county appraiser’s department. Commissioner Larry McManus cast the lone dissenting vote.
McManus said he was against purchasing additional vehicles because of the economic downfall confronting the region.
