Jail sticks it to prisoners one more time

If you are unlucky enough to find yourself a guest at the Nygren Hotel at 2200 North Seminary Avenue in Woodstock (a/k/a McHenry County Jail), you'll find the cost of checking out to be unnecessarily higher than it should be, if you attempt to use a credit card in the absence of sufficient cash.

In addition to the bond (frequently, 10% of the bail), you'll pay a $28.00 service fee for a jailer to print out a copy of the release paperwork and hand back your property. Rumor has it that this fee is scheduled to be increased to $50.00, come the first of the year.

If your friends or family show up with cash or Travelers Cheques, you'll be in the smart crowd.

If they show up with a credit card, the will pay a hefty surcharge for the use of that credit card. A sign on the window where they'll transact business (the bulletproof glass there may be to protect them from a stray bullet fired inside the jail offices) reads, "ATTENTION. The Circuit Clerk uses an outside vendor to process credit card payments. The fee is not charged or collected by the Circuit Clerk or McHenry County Jail."

Read further down for discussion on the lie contained in that notice.

But first, the fees for using a credit card:

Bond..................Credit Card Surcharge
$1.00-199.99.....$20.00
$200-299.99.....$30.00
$300-399.99.....$40.00
$400-499.99.....$50.00
$500-749.99.....$75.00
$750-1499.99.....$110.00
$1500-1749.99.....$125.00
$1750-1999.99.....$145.00
$2000-99,999.....8%

Now, figure out the percentage yourself. If your bond was $100.00, you would pay $100.00 + $28.00 + $20.00 = $148.00. That $20.00 cost of using your credit card for the $128.00 would work out to 15.6%.

Compare that to the fee a merchant in Woodstock might pay for accepting your credit card for a purchase, which might be 3%.

Why did the Circuit Clerk contract with a credit card processing company that charges such outrageous rates?

Now for the lie... The notice posted on the window at the Jail reads, "ATTENTION. The Circuit Clerk uses an outside vendor to process credit card payments. The fee is not charged or collected by the Circuit Clerk or McHenry County Jail."

Who "collects" the fee at the Jail when a credit card is used? The jailer standing right in front of you, wearing that uniform that identifies him or her as an employee of the McHenry County Jail. Of course, it is collected by the Jail. The Jail is the vendor's agent (or "merchant"). Do they remit all of the fee to that outside vendor? Just who is that outside vendor? What ties, if any, does that vendor have to the County?

Somewhere in that 15.6% fee there must be some payback to McHenry County. The bigger question, of course, is why doesn't the Circuit Clerk do a little shopping and drive a hard bargain to reduce the credit card fee to 3% or even just a flat $5.00???

Is it called ripping off the poor, the defenseless, the underdog, the powerless?