§ 5-7-6

Duty of Clerk of Court or the Department of Corrections; collection and disposition of compensation. (a) Every gainfully employed offender shall be responsible for managing his or her earnings. The clerk of the circuit court shall have only those responsibilities regarding an offender's earnings as are set forth in this Section. Every offender, including offenders who are sentenced to periodic imprisonment for weekends only, gainfully employed shall pay a fee for room and board at a rate established, with the concurrence of the chief judge of the judicial circuit, by the county board of the county in which the offender is incarcerated. The concurrence of the chief judge shall be in the form of an administrative order. In establishing the fee for room and board consideration may be given to all costs incidental to the incarceration of offenders. If an offender is necessarily absent from the institution at mealtime he or she shall, without additional charge, be furnished with a meal to carry to work. Each week, on a day designated by the clerk of the circuit court, every offender shall pay the clerk the fees for the offender's room and board. Failure to pay the clerk on the day designated shall result in the termination of the offender's release. All fees for room and board collected by the circuit court clerk shall be disbursed into the county's General Corporate Fund. By order of the court, all or a portion of the earnings of employed offenders shall be turned over to the clerk to be distributed for the following purposes, in the order stated: (1) the room and board of the offender; (2) necessary travel expenses to and from work and other incidental expenses of the offender, when those expenses are incurred by the administrator of the offender's imprisonment; (3) support of the offender's dependents, if any. (b) If the offender has one or more dependents who are recipients of financial assistance pursuant to the Illinois Public Aid Code, or who are residents of a State hospital, State school or foster care facility provided by the State, the court shall order the offender to turn over all or a portion of his earnings to the clerk who shall, after making the deductions provided for under paragraph (a), distribute those earnings to the appropriate agency as reimbursement for the cost of care of such dependents. The order shall permit the Department of Human Services (acting as successor to the Illinois Department of Public Aid under the Department of Human Services Act) or the local governmental unit, as the case may be, to request the clerk that subsequent payments be made directly to the dependents, or to some agency or person in their behalf, upon removal of the dependents from the public aid rolls; and upon such direction and removal of the recipients from the public aid rolls, the Department of Human Services or the local governmental unit, as the case requires, shall give written notice of such action to the court. Payments received by the Department of Human Services or by governmental units in behalf of recipients of public aid shall be deposited into the General Revenue Fund of the State Treasury or General Assistance Fund of the governmental unit, under Section 10-19 of the Illinois Public Aid Code. (c) The clerk of the circuit court shall keep individual accounts of all money collected by him as required by this Article. He shall deposit all moneys as trustee in a depository designated by the county board and shall make payments required by the court's order from such trustee account. Such accounts shall be subject to audit in the same manner as accounts of the county are audited. (d) If an institution or the Department of Corrections certifies to the court that it can administer this Section with respect to persons committed to it under this Article, the clerk of the court shall be relieved of its duties under this Section and they shall be assumed by such institution or the Department. (e) Fines and assessments, such as fees or administrative costs, authorized under this Section shall not be ordered or imposed on a minor subject to Article III, IV, or V of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987, or a minor under the age of 18 transferred to adult court or excluded from juvenile court jurisdiction under Article V of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987, or the minor's parent, guardian, or legal custodian.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 103-379, eff. 7-28-23.)