All the Jail Fees

I get a lot of questions about court costs and other monetary obligations. Jail fees seem to be a particular concern. Let’s talk about all the money that could change hands for every day an inmate spends in jail. Jail fees paid by the defendant. There are three types of jail fees a defendant might have to pay. Pretrial jail fees. Persons confined in jail awaiting trial shall be liable to the county maintaining the jail in the sum of $10 for each 24 hours of confinement or fraction thereof. Years ago that fee was $5 per day, but the General Assembly increased it to $10 per day in 2011. G.S. 7A-313. This fee is a court cost within the meaning of G.S. 7A-304 (it is referenced in subsection (c) of that section), which means it applies unless the court waives it pursuant to a just-cause finding as provided in G.S. 7A-304(a). Probationary jail fees. The second paragraph of G.S. 7A-313 sets out a jail fee for “[p]ersons who are ordered to pay jail fees pursuant to a probationary sentence.” The law is a little confusing because it doesn’t explicitly say who those persons are, but the general interpretation over the years has been that the fee can apply to defendants ordered to spend some time in jail as part of a term of special probation (a split sentence). The amount of the fee is pegged to the “per diem rate paid by [the prison system] to the jails for maintaining [...]