They say crime doesn’t pay, but in Freeborn County convicts will pay &045; $20 a day to stay at the Freeborn County jail.

The new arrangement, which some say puts an unfair burden on prisoners, will go into affect Oct. 1 after the county board unanimously approved it Tuesday.

&uot;There’s no reason the taxpayer should have to pay the whole amount of jail time,&uot; said Commissioner Dave Mullenbach.

He acknowledged that some people might be affected adversely, but &uot;every dollar we collect is a dollar we don’t have to collect from the taxpayer.&uot;

Chairman Mark Berhends said he thought many inmates won’t pay, not because they can’t, but because they won’t.

Those who stay in the jail awaiting trial won’t be charged, only those who have been convicted and are serving sentences.

Those on work release already pay $10 per day; that fee will increase to $20.

The plan comes two years after the state legislature approved a law allowing counties to charge prisoners for their stays.

County Jail Administrator Steve Westland said he had recommended at the time to see just how other counties’ arrangements worked out. Since then, counties like Olmsted found that collecting the debt cost more that it collected. That’s why he recommended a plan that will use a private debt collector who receives payment upon collection, rather than an in-house collection mechanism. Using a debt collector makes the penalty for non-payment a bad credit report.

Last year, he said, work release workers were billed $37,000, and they are required to pay before they leave jail. That could double with the added fee. For regular inmates, the amount of income is unclear because no one can predict who will pay. He has said that 10 percent of inmates paying would be a lot. But with an average stay of about 21 days, many inmates will have a bill of hundreds of dollars which will go to a collection company if they can’t pay on their release date.

But the burden of a bad credit report is something that will stay with an inmate well past their release date.

&uot;It’s going to put an extra burden on families who don’t have that much money to begin with,&uot; said Kathy Sickels, a program coordinator for Community Action, who works with people in dire financial straits.

She acknowledged that it’s someone’s fault when they commit a crime, but said having their name on a collector’s list could keep them from buying a car or a house and getting their life together after they’ve served their time.

She said it’s likely that they will increase the demand on government services and charities, which are already strapped for cash.

(Contact Tim Sturrock at tim.sturrock @albertleatribune.com or 379-3438.)