WEST OLIVE, Mich. (WOOD) -- Some defendants are allowed to remain out of the custody of county jails because their medical costs are deemed to be too high for the taxpayers to foot the bill.
State law requires county jails to cover the medical costs of inmates in their care. “…All charges and expenses of safekeeping and maintaining prisoners and persons charged with an offense, shall be paid from the county treasury, the accounts therefor being first settled and allowed by the county board of commissioners.”
Heather Luke, wrong-way driver in deadly I-96 crash
“[Medical costs are] something that’s covered. We do have laws that cover how we treat our inmates and what services are available to them and again the medical healthcare is one of those,” said Undersheriff Steve Kempker.
He spoke to 24 Hour News 8 about Heather Luke, the wrong way drunk driver who was allowed to remain out of jail for nearly a year, so taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay for her care.
Last July, Luke drove the wrong way on I-96, near Marne. She hit the minivan Bill Foster was driving head on. She had a blood alcohol content of .285, and the “black box” on her vehicle showed that she accelerated until one second before impact.
She was given a $1,000 bail, of which she posted $100, to remain out of jail until she was sentenced Monday to seven to 15 years in state prison.
The family of her victim, Bill Foster, said they looked at that bond as a “slap in the face.”
When she was finally sentenced, the family told Target 8 they were relieved because they were afraid their loved one wouldn’t ever get justice.
“[The family feels] very good,” Bill Foster’s brother Paul Foster said after sentencing. “We were told not to yell out in the courtroom but I just wanted to scream, Yes!”
Kempker explained that while it wasn’t the sheriff’s department’s decision, the department did explain that if she were taken into custody the jail would have to “take over” the cost of her medical bills.
“This was probably the first that I've seen in probably 10 or 15 years with the magnitude of the injuries, with the magnitude of the medical expense,” said Kempker of Luke’s injuries. He said the department knew she still needed more surgeries and physical therapy, with an estimated cost of $100,000.
Without Luke adding to Ottawa County’s cost, Kempker estimated that the jail, between medical and prescription costs, spends between $700,000 to $800,000 a year on adult medical costs. That’s about 10 percent of the jail’s total budget.
Jeffrey Klein, too heavy for court
Michigan’s Department of Corrections spends about $300 million a year, about 15 percent of their total budget, on medical care.
Kent County spends $5.6 million on medical costs, which is about 16 percent of the jail budget.
Former Kent County's Undersheriff Jon Hess told Target 8, that the jail routinely won't take inmates until they're medically cleared. An example of that was Jeffrey Klein. Klein, in 2012, called in a bomb threat to a mobile home park in Cedar Springs. He claimed he couldn’t go to court, or jail, because he was too heavy. He was sentenced to state prison in January 2015, and the earliest he will be released is June 2016.
Kalamazoo's Undersheriff Paul Matyas, said in an email to Target 8, “There is not a jurisdiction in America or Canada that does not release or bond an inmate out that is facing a high medical cost.” He went on to say that the final determination is made by a judge after he or she weighs many different factors.
Javonte Higgins, convicted double murderer
Javonte Higgins was another case where medical costs and concerns factored into when he was booked into jail.
Weeks before Higgins murdered David and Vivenne Bouwman, he led Wyoming police on a high speed chase, crashed a stolen vehicle and ended up in the hospital with extensive injuries.
In that case, prosecutors didn't authorize the warrant immediately, that way the county didn’t have to pay his hospital bills. In that case, one day before police thought he'd be released from the hospital, Higgins decided to leave against doctors’ orders. By the time the hospital called police and they arrived, Higgins was gone.
Back in 2013, Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody said he believed his officers did everything they could in that situation.
“There's only one person responsible for the deaths of those people, and that person will be held responsible. The officers did their job, and they followed through as far as they could do within the legal limits of the law,” said Carmody.