Opinion ID: 1579306
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Governing Statutes.

Text: Because this case primarily presents an issue of statutory construction, it is helpful to begin our discussion with a brief review of the statute at issue and its related provisions. Iowa Code section 905.14 (2001) imposes an enrollment fee on defendants placed on probation. This statute states: 1. A person placed on probation or parole and subject to supervision by a district department shall be required to pay an enrollment fee of two hundred fifty dollars to the district department to offset the costs of supervision. 2. The fees established pursuant to this section shall not be waived by the sentencing court. Each district department shall retain fees collected for administrative and program services. 3. The department of corrections may adopt rules for the administration of this section. If adopted, the rules shall include a provision for waiving the collection of fees for persons determined to be unable to pay. Iowa Code § 905.14 (emphasis added). [D]istrict department is defined as a judicial district department of correctional services. Id. § 905.1(5). The district departments are intended to furnish or contract for those services necessary to provide a community-based correctional program to meet the needs of that judicial district. Id. § 905.2. Pursuant to the rule-making authority granted in section 905.14, the department of corrections has adopted the following administrative rules: 42.1(13) The district department shall have written policies and procedures governing the preparation, submission, review, modification, collection and retention of supervision enrollment fees, in accordance with Iowa Code chapter 905.14. Payments shall be made directly to the supervising judicial district department. 42.1(14) The district department shall have written policies and procedures governing the waiver of collection of supervision fees for persons determined to be unable to pay, in accordance with Iowa Code chapter 905.14. Iowa Admin. Code rs. 201-42.1(13)-(14) (1997). The record before us does not contain the specific policies and procedures adopted pursuant to these rules by the district department involved in this case. With this statutory framework in mind, we review the events leading to the present appeal.