Paying to get arrested?

City jail inmates must pay new fee
Marysville is charging prisoners $32 for booking, joining other jails in the county that collect a similar fee.

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/04/05/14/loc_jail001.cfm

By Cathy Logg
Herald Writer

MARYSVILLE - Anyone booked into the Marysville jail now must pay $32.

City officials expect the fee to raise about $40,000 a year, which will help pay for two new jail officers added this year.

State law allows jails to charge up to $100 or the actual cost of booking, city police Cmdr. Ralph Krusey said.

Marysville didn't used to charge for booking, but the other two jails in the county, the Snohomish County and Lynnwood jails, charge a booking fee.


-more-

Does this seem right? What about those falsely accused? They still have to pay for the right to be arrested?

They are reimbursed.

That's the real question.

The "arrest" goes on their record temporarily, their name goes into the database permanently. Suddenly, you're off the voting rolls.

If the Florida voting rolls turned up the name John Smith as a convicted felon, and your name was Jan Smythe, you're quite likely to be off in Florida. It was in 2000.

At least, that would be a great example.

John Smith - 52 years old, gray hair, balding, white, male.

Jan Smythe - 28 years old, long brown hair, biracial, female.

According to Florida 2000, that would be enough for a match.

Of course, that scenario didn't play out. More like a match of Adam Johnson (felon, race unknown) and Adahm Jackson-Muhammed (squeaky-clean, black).

Just convicted felons. (Those convicted of misdimeanors, even in FL, can still vote.)

Now, whether their name goes into the database anyway is a whole 'nother thing...

in a database that Florida decides to use for matching purposes to find "felons" who are likely to vote Democratic. The stats/bios of the matches don't even have to match in sex.