A Clearwater woman wins her battle against state charges of $20 per day for 20 days that her son, who was never prosecuted, spent at home on detention.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published September 18, 2003
CLEARWATER - Like a lot of parents whose children get arrested, Deborah Shackowsky wasn't thrilled to learn that state law allowed officials to charge her money for the cost of detaining her son for 21 days.
But two things about her $420 bill sent her through the roof.
First, the state wanted her to pay $20 per day for the 20 days her son spent on "home detention," similar to house arrest. In other words, she was supposed to keep her son at home and pay the state for it.
Second, state officials decided not to prosecute her then-17-year-old son for the aggravated assault charge he originally faced in November 2000, meaning he was legally innocent.
The Department of Juvenile Justice sent her letters demanding the money anyway.
"I'm like, wait a minute, this is so wrong," said Shackowsky, 42, a nurse from Clearwater.
So Shackowsky, who has no legal training, typed up her own motion to have the $420 in charges waived. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Marion Fleming denied the motion.
But Shackowsky learned Wednesday that she had won an appeal prepared by attorney Bruce Howie, working with the American Civil Liberties Union.
"It infuriates me that they could have passed this law, and it takes a housewife from Clearwater, Florida, to set them all straight. It's absolutely ridiculous," Ms. Shackowsky said.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland called the state law "arbitrary and oppressive."
In theory, the law is designed to make parents pay some of the cost of having their children detained. But the opinion noted it would actually cost parents more to have their children sent home.
State lawyers argued that there was still some cost for supervising youths' detention at home.
As a practical matter, the Department of Juvenile Justice since March 2001 has let parents know that they can seek a refund of any payments for children who are acquitted of charges. DJJ spokeswoman Catherine Arnold said the department's lawyers would review the opinion to see if the agency needed to alter its practice of requiring parents to pay detention costs even for children being detained at home.
It was not known whether the state would appeal Wednesday's ruling.
