Jail charges a daily fee, then uses cash to rent cotton candy machine, Iowa suit says

As inmates process out of Black Hawk County Jail in Iowa, they’re handed a bill for their stay.

They’re charged a $70 “room and board fee” for each day they were incarcerated, plus an additional $25 booking fee, according to a class-action lawsuit filed on May 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Eastern Division.

Rather than covering the costs associated with running a jail, however, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa alleges Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson used a portion of the cash to pay for a shooting range that occasionally included ice cream and cotton candy machines, as well as laser tag.

“Using the money individuals rely on to put food on the table, pay their rent, and afford other living expenses, the Department provides perks to employees and funds activities entirely unrelated to the treatment of individuals detained at the jail,” according to the lawsuit.

Thompson justified the charges in a statement to McClatchy News.

“When they pay for their stay in jail, they are helping fund training for the law enforcement profession, families, and our communities by providing programming that destigmatizes the profession of law enforcement just a bit,” he said.

How are jail fees collected?

The case was brought against the county by a single mother of three who was detained twice, nine days total, at Black Hawk County Jail in 2022 and now owes $730 in fees, according to the lawsuit.

She, along with others, were told they would be discharged once paperwork was signed. This included a “confession of judgment” that invoiced her for her nine-day stay, according to the complaint.

If a person has money on them when they are booked into the jail, located in Waterloo, those funds are seized by the sheriff’s office and put toward the charges for their stay, the complaint said.

“The sheriff’s department has imposed a high cost that should never be charged in the first place,” attorney Charles Moore of the Public Justice’s Debtors’ Prison Project said in a May 13 statement from the ACLU. Public Justice and multiple law are also filing the lawsuit.

The ACLU said inmates were “forced” to sign the confession of judgment, which is never reviewed by a judge.

“Room and board (fees) are generally the fees judges are willing to waive,” the sheriff said, according to the lawsuit.

Approximately three months after her release, the 40-year-old mother was contacted by the sheriff’s office because she had not paid her fees. According to a judgment form, the woman told the deputy she couldn’t make the payments because “she needs to feed her 3 kids.”

Since the woman’s fees were never reviewed by a judge, she was “never given an opportunity to challenge the amount” she was owed or justify why she was unable to make the payments, the lawsuit says.

She eventually received a collection letter telling her she may owe more because she had not made her monthly payment, according to the lawsuit.

Though jail fees are legal in Iowa, the ACLU says Black Hawk County’s fees are much higher than surrounding counties, though many do not charge inmates during the time they are detained, according to the complaint.

In a two-year period, Black Hawk County collected more than $590,000 from jail fees while similar size countries in the state collected less than half of that amount, according to court documents.

Funding a shooting range

Under Iowa law, 60% of the jail fees collected are allocated for courthouse security, jail improvements and medical costs of inmates while 40% is unallocated, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the unallocated funds, referred to as the “40% fund,” were misused by the sheriff’s office to pay for “superfluous expenses entirely unrelated to the upkeep of the jail or the wellbeing of those in custody at the jail.”

Thompson said only a “minimal” amount of the 40% fund was used for “recreational use,” such as a cotton candy machine and laser tag at the shooting range.

In September 2022, the county board attempted to take control of the 40% fund over concerns that a portion of the money funded Raymond Range, a shooting range that has disturbed residents in the town of Raymond for years, according to the lawsuit.

Raymond Range was only open to employees and their families to use, the lawsuit said, and other law enforcement agencies would pay to use it, further generating revenue for the department.

A month later, the board voted to place the 40% fund in the county’s general fund, which would allow any spending to be approved by the board, according to the complaint. Thompson immediately stopped collecting jail fees as a response, and refused to reinstate the fees until the board allowed the unallocated 40% to be under the sheriff’s control for the shooting range, according to the lawsuit.

When the 40% fund was turned over to the county general fund, there was $227,000 in the account, the lawsuit said. The sheriff’s office collects approximately $300,000 annually from jail fees.

Black Hawk County is about a 125-mile drive northeast of Des Moines.

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