Court Opinion

ID: 9614458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:25:43.872918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:03.830168
License: Public Domain

1985 Opinion No. 99, Issued May 30, 1985, is Hereby Withdrawn and This Opinion is Substituted Therefor.
ON REHEARING
HUNTLEY, Justice.
By this appeal we are asked to decide the extent to which the City of Pocatello is liable to Bannock County for costs of incarcerating violators housed in the Bannock County Jail.
The action was initiated by Bannock County seeking judgment against the City of Pocatello for nonpayment of costs for housing persons detained in the Bannock County Jail for violations of any ordinances of the City of Pocatello, for violations of any offense arising under title 49 of the Idaho Code, and for violations of other misdemeanor criminal offenses arising under the statutes of the state of Idaho. The city denies it is obligated to pay for any of the aforementioned incarceration expenses other than those arising from detentions for violations of ordinances of the City of Pocatello.
The case was presented to the trial court on stipulated facts, the city moving for summary judgment and the county moving for declaratory judgment. The county’s motion was granted, the city’s motion was denied, and this appeal followed.
I.C. § 50-302A reads:
50-302A. Confinement in city or county jail for violating ordinance. — Any person charged with or convicted of violation of a city ordinance and subject to imprisonment shall be confined in the city jail; provided, however, that any city shall have the right to use the jail of the county for the confinement of such persons but it shall be liable to the county for the cost of keeping such prisoners.
Historically, under 50-302A (enacted in 1970), Bannock County was reimbursed by the city for the confinement of persons in jail for violations of city ordinances. The controversy between the parties arises from their conflicting interpretations of a related statute enacted three years later. I.C. § 20-605 (1973), reads:
20-605. Costs of confinement. — The county wherein any court has entered an order pursuant to section 20-604, Idaho Code, shall pay all direct and indirect costs of the detention or confinement of the person to the governmental unit or agency owning or operating the jail or confinement facilities in which the person was confined or detained. The amount of such direct and indirect costs shall be determined on a per day per person basis by agreement between the county wherein the court entered the order and the county or governmental unit or agency owning or operating such jail or confinement facilities. In the absence of such agreement or order fixing the cost as provided in section 20-606, Idaho Code, the daily charge for each person confined or detained shall be the sum of twenty dollars ($20.00) per day, plus the actual cost of any medical or dental services, and in the event of the death of such detained or confined person, the county wherein the court entered the order shall pay all actual burial costs. In case a person confined or detained was initially arrested by a city police officer for violation of the motor vehicle laws of this state or for violation of a city ordinance, the cost of such confinement or detention shall be a charge against such city by the county wherein the order of confinement was entered. All payments under this section shall be acted upon for each calendar month by the second Monday of the month following the date of billing. (Emphasis added.)
The county asserts that the italicized portion of I.C. § 20-605, supra, plainly and *294clearly requires that the city reimburse the county for the costs of confinement of all prisoners detained in the Bannock County Jail if the initial arrest was made by a city police officer for either violation of the motor vehicle laws or violation of a city ordinance, despite the fact that I.C. § 50-302A renders the city liable for a narrower sepctrum of cases.
To examine I.C. § 20-605 in a vacuum, as the county would have us do, would ignore two basic tenets of statutory construction. First, all section sof applicable statutes must be read together to determine the legislature’s intent, Umphrey v. Sprinkel, 106 Idaho 700, 706, 682 P.2d 1247, 1253 (1983); Magnuson v. Idaho State Tax Comm’n, 97 Idaho 917, 920, 556 P.2d 1197, 1200 (1976). Secondly, in attempting to discern and implement the legislative intent, this Court will examine the statute’s history and its evolution through amendment. Leliefeld v. Johnson, 104 Idaho 357, 367, 659 P.2d 111, 121 (1983); Mix v. Gem Investors, Inc., 103 Idaho 355, 356-57, 647 P.2d 811, 812-13 (1982).
The current version of I.C. § 20-605 was added in 1973. At that time, former I.C. §§ 20-604, -605, -606 and -607 were repealed. See 1973 Idaho Sess.Laws, ch. 2, p. 4-6. Former I.C. § 20-604 provided, “When there is no jail in the county, or when the jail becomes unfit or unsafe for the confinement of prisoners, the probate judge may ... designate the jail of a contiguous county for the confinement of the prisoners of his county....” (Emphasis added.) Former I.C. § 20-605 directed the sheriff or keeper of the designated jail to receive all prisoners so committed to his jail. I.C. § 20-606 stated that prisoners should be returned to the original county once a jail was erected there or the original jail was rendered fit and safe, and I.C. § 20-607 set forth the procedural aspects of the prisoner’s return. Thus, these former provisions, which were to be read together, provided for the use of the jail of a contiguous county when there was no habitable jail in the county.
Prior to the 1973 amendment of these statutes, it was “the duty of the board of county commissioners to furnish all persons committed to the county jail with necessary food, clothing and bedding, and the board of the county commissioners is authorized to pay therefor out of the county treasury under such rules and regulations as they may prescribe.” I.C. § 20-612. That statutory duty has not changed to this day. The one exception to this duty was found in I.C. § 50-302A, enacted in 1970, which required the city to pay the county for the cost of confining any person charged with or convicted of violation of a city ordinance. I.C. § 50-302A did not require the city to pay for city ordinance violators who were confined in contiguous counties. There was no statutory provision that directly identified which county was to pay for the housing of prisoners confined to jails in contiguous counties.
The 1973 amendment of I.C. §§ 20-604, -605, -606 and -607 broadened the authority of the courts to send prisoners outside the county where they were charged by enabling a judge to order the confinement of prisoners in other non-contiguous counties. I.C. § 20-604, as amended, enables a district judge or magistrate to order prisoners confined in any county jail in that judicial district, or in any other county if an agreement to that effect exists between the counties. I.C. § 20-605, as amended, defines which county is responsible for the cost of jailing the prisoners in another county. Specifically, I.C. § 20-605 provides, “The county wherein any court has entered an order pursuant to section 20-604, Idaho Code, shall pay all direct and indirect costs of the detention or confinement of the person to the governmental unit or agency owning or operating the jail or confinement facilities in which the person was confined or detained.” I.C. § 20-605 also sets the amount to be charged the responsible county, in the absence of an agreement or order fixing the costs pursuant to I.C. § 20-606. (I.C. § 20-606 allows for judicial determination of the costs of confinement.)
*295Finally, I.C. § 20-605 provides, “In case a person confined or detained was initially arrested by a city police officer for violation of the motor vehicle laws of this state or for violation of a city ordinance, the cost of such confinement or detention shall be a charge against such city by the county wherein the order of confinement was entered.” Read with the other provisions of I.C. § 20-604, -605 and -606, all of which were enacted in 1973, it is clear that this language is very narrow. The statutory language only requires that the city reimburse the county when the county has a responsibility to pay for prisoners housed in other counties pursuant to I.C. §§ 20-604, -605 and -606.
That I.C. §§ 20-604, -605 and -606 only regulate the city’s and the county’s responsibility for prisoners housed in counties other than those in which the city is situated, becomes apparent when one considers that I.C. § 20-612 was not amended in 1973, but remains in effect today. As noted above, I.C. § 20-612 places on the county commissioners the complete duty to pay, with county funds, for all prisoners housed in that county. To interpret I.C. § 20-612 as the county does would require that we ignore I.C. § 20-612 presumably because I.C. § 20-605 has superseded I.C. § 20-612.1 A statutory provision is not to be deprived of its potency if a reasonable alternative construction is possible, State v. Rawson, 100 Idaho 308, 312, 597 P.2d 31, 35 (1979); Maguire v. Yanke, 99 Idaho 829, 836, 590 P.2d 85, 92 (1979). A more reasonable alternative to the county’s interpretation is that I.C. §§ 20-604, -605 and -606 are specific statutes which pertain only to the housing of prisoners in another county, while I.C. § 20-612 applies to prisoners housed within the county.
Accordingly, while I.C. § 50-302A does make the city liable to the county for the cost of jailing prisoners charged with or convicted of a city ordinance and I.C. § 20-605 places on the city liability for the cost of keeping prisoners in other counties if that offending person was either initially arrested by a city police officer for violation of a city ordinance or for violation of the state motor vehicle laws, nevertheless, under I.C. § 20-612, the City of Pocatello is not liable for the cost of keeping prisoners in the Bannock County Jail if the prisoner has been arrested by a city police officer for violation of a state motor vehicle law. Pursuant to I.C. § 20-612, the county has “the duty” to pay for the incarceration of such prisoners.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent herewith.
Costs to appellant. ,No attorney fees awarded.
BAKES and BISTLINE, JJ., concur.

. Since I.C. § 20-612 requires the county to pay for all necessary food, clothing and bedding, whereas I.C. § 20-605 limits the county’s liability to $20 per day where prisoners are confined outside the county, it is clear that the statutes are not in conflict, but merely apply to different situations.