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Farmington • Davis County officials approved a resolution this week to repay inmates who had money taken out of their jail accounts to pay for lodging and medical expenses in a "pay for stay" program.
The Davis County Commission approved the resolution on Tuesday, which would repay inmates who had money taken from April 2010 and onward without a judge's order. The resolution states the county is "legally and morally obligated to reimburse individuals whose funds have been unlawfully seized."
A judge in April ordered the Davis County Sheriff's Office to stop the controversial program.
While Utah law allows jails to use inmate money to cover the cost of housing inmates, Judge Michael Allphin ruled a judge must first sign off before money can be taken from the accounts.
A law passed by the Utah Legislature in 2007 allows counties to collect payments from inmates to shift the burden off of taxpayers. Inmates typically use their jail accounts for food and personal items.
Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings told county commissioners on Tuesday that the county has already begun issuing checks to inmates who had money taken, The Standard-Examiner reports (http://bit.ly/1wCIsuL ).
The repayments are coming out of the budget for the sheriff's office, but there's no estimate yet of how much it might be, sheriff's office spokeswoman Sgt. DeeAnn Servey said Friday. The office doesn't know how many people could be eligible for a reimbursement, Servey added.
The sheriff's office books more than 10,000 inmates a year, but not all of them are eligible for a refund, she said.
Rawlings told The Salt Lake Tribune earlier this year that his office had warned the sheriff back in May 2013 to stop the practice. Without a court order and before an inmate is sentenced, taking the money is illegal and unconstitutional, he said.
The Davis County Sheriff's Office says it collected nearly $370,000 from inmates in the program last year and, in exchange for inmate labor, waived another $858,000 it could have charged. The county charges inmates $10 a day to cover service costs.
Sheriff's officials have said nobody questioned their methods until 2013, and they had already ceased collecting money until inmates are sentenced.
A public defender first raised the issue last year.