Opinion ID: 804454
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Housing Fee Claim

Text: Carson claims the $50-per-month “user fee” for room and board constituted a fine, which violates his Due Process right to be free from punishment until proven guilty. We disagree. In Tillman v. Lebanon County Correctional Facility, 221 F.3d 410, 420 (3d Cir. 2000), we specifically held that such fees are not punishment, but are rather “designed to teach financial responsibility.” Furthermore, we explained that “[m]ore fundamentally, the fees can hardly be called fines when they merely represent partial reimbursement of the prisoner‟s daily cost of maintenance, something he or she would be expected to pay on the outside.” Id. Carson argues that Tillman does not control, because unlike him, the plaintiff in that case was a convicted prisoner. We agree that the Eighth Amendment legal standard applied in Tillman does not control, but Tillman is relevant not because of its legal standard, but because of its holding that housing fees are not punishment. The fees are nonpunitive and related to the legitimate purpose of partially reimbursing the government for housing expenditures. Thus, the fines do not violate the Bell requirement that pre-trial detainees not be subject to punishment.