Barstow faces higher costs for jail booking fees

BARSTOW — Barstow may have to pay more for booking inmates into county jails when the state finalizes this year’s budget.

San Bernardino County owns and runs the Barstow Jail and may bill the city for the costs of booking inmates into it. Regardless of the final budget decided upon by the state, Barstow will likely pay more in reimbursements to the county for the cost of booking offenders into county jails this year than it has in the past.

Police officials said that increased costs will not effect the number of offenders who are jailed in Barstow. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office, however, said cutting state funding of booking fees encourages cities to weigh the choice of booking low-level offenders and adding them to the jail population. The analyst office recommended that the state cut its assistance to counties for booking costs in this year’s budget.

“When counties charge cities booking fees, it does force cities to be little more strategic in who they book into county jails,” said Paul Golaszewski, a fiscal and policy analyst with the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. “It’s a fiscal incentive not to book really low-level offenders into county jails, because the county jails are overcrowded.”

Under state law, counties may charge an additional fee to cities that book a high proportion of non-felony offenders, but San Bernardino County has not enacted an ordinance that would allow it to charge the fee.

Barstow Police Department Chief Dianne Burns said that the amount charged by the county for booking costs is not one of the factors the department considers in deciding whether to book or cite and release a suspect.

“Our concern is not jail overcrowding,” Burns stated via e-mail. “Rather, we care about putting criminals in jail so they cannot continue to prey on the citizens of Barstow.”

In developing this year’s budget, the state Senate came out in favor of completely eliminating the state allotments paid to counties for booking expenses, while the Assembly supported Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut last year’s funding level of $35 million by 10 percent, Golaszewski said. The question is being argued in conference committee.

If the state follows the analyst office recommendation, it will eliminate the payments to counties, meaning that counties will bill the cities for the booking expenses they create. Golaszewski said the analyst office takes the position that county jails should be a county responsibility.
Barstow Police Department currently books all felony suspects and misdemeanor suspects who are arrested on warrants or are considered to be a flight risk, Rader said.

Barstow was not required to reimburse the county for booking fees for the 2007-2008 year, because the state provided San Bernardino County with $2.75 million to cover booking costs, county spokesman David Wert said.

Although Barstow did not pay the county for booking fees, it still received $7,945 from court-ordered arrestee reimbursements for the year, according to a March 25 memo from former finance director Gil Olivarez to interim city manager Richard Rowe. The arrestee reimbursement funds go into the city’s general fund, city spokesman John Rader said. Reimbursements may be ordered by the court when offenders are convicted.

Until last year, counties billed cities for the cost of booking jail inmates and the cities then applied to the state to be reimbursed, Golaszewski said. Then the state began providing funds directly to the counties. If the state allocates less than $35 million to all the counties in the state for jail booking costs in any given year, the counties may bill the cities to make up the difference.

In 2006-2007, the county billed Barstow for booking fees, but Barstow was reimbursed for the expense by the state. The memo from Olivarez placed the amount of the bill at $47,277. Wert said the amount was $56,061. Barstow’s current senior account clerk Mary Costa said the city paid a total of $55,822 to the county for the year. The city was reimbursed $55,503 from the state, according to Olivarez’ memo and Costa. It received $7,974 from arrestee reimbursements for the year.

Last year, the county was authorized to charge a maximum rate of $79.86 per booking based on its costs, although it did not bill the cities because of the funds received from the state, Wert said. This year, the maximum fee will be $89.66 per booking, he said, but the actual amount will depend on how much state assistance the county gets.

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