The Badger Herald: News: Dane County cannot pay bail

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Dane County cannot pay bail

Wisconsin attorney general calls local loan program illegal

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By Rachel Vesco
Thursday, April 23, 2009 2:09 a.m.

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Dane County should not have been allowed to use tax-payer money to help bail criminals out of jail, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a formal opinion released Wednesday.

Under the Revolving Bail Program, the county could give loans to criminals charged with a misdemeanor offense, such as disorderly conduct, where bail is set at $250 or less. It was “very specific to the type of crimes” committed by individuals.

The program was part of the 2008 budget approved by the Dane County Board of Supervisors, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney spokesperson Elise Schaffer said.

If an individual received a loan from the sheriff’s department, they ultimately had to pay it back, Schaffer added.

According to Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, “the program is explicitly intended to bypass court proceedings as a response to jail overcrowding,” and included “no involvement by any judge or court commissioner” in the process.

In November, Blanchard wrote to Van Hollen requesting an option regarding the legality of the program. Blanchard, who said he heard about the program through the news media, was concerned it was not something the sheriff should have been doing.

“It struck me as what the sheriff was doing wasn’t lawful,” Blanchard said.

In his opinion request, Blanchard said a “sheriff signature bond program potentially deprives victims and public agencies of funds that would otherwise be transferred from posted and forfeited bail funds to victims or to public agencies.”

Ultimately, Van Hollen agreed with Blanchard.

In the opinion, Van Hollen wrote that nothing in Wisconsin law “expressly authorizes the sheriff to loan county funds to the persons booked into the county jail,” and the law only allows sheriffs be in charge of county jails and “state the time when and the authority by which the prisoner is liberated.”

Dane County Supervisor, Paul Rusk, District 12, who is the Chair of the Public Protection and Judiciary Committee for the Dane County Board of Supervisors, disagreed, calling the program “progressive” and arguing the fund was set up to help low income individuals pay their bail.

Overall, the Revolving Bail Program served six people and cost $550 before Mahoney stopped the program in November after Blanchard wrote to request the Van Hollen’s opinion.