Nixon recovers $780,000 from inmates

By Brandon Cone
BDN Staff Writer
bcone@bransondailynews.com

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon is doing all he can to prove wrong the old adage saying “Crime doesn’t pay.”

In fact, Nixon is making inmates pay for the crimes they are incarcerated for.

Through the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act, which was enacted in 1988, Nixon has taken legal action and recovered more than $780,000 from inmates in 2007 to cover the cost of their care. The attorney general has collected more than $5.6 million from inmates through MIRA since taking office in 1993.

“We will continue to ferret out and lay claim to assets from those inmates who have the means to pay for the housing and care they receive from Missouri taxpayers,” Nixon said.

Here are a few of the notable recoveries Nixon’s office made in 2007:

— $48,554 from Nick E. Johnson, who inherited part of his father’s estate. Johnson was sentenced for stealing a motor vehicle, assault, stealing and multiple drug possession counts.

— $40,085 from an inheritance received by Devin Brown, sentenced for possession of a controlled substance.

— $31,570 from Christopher Wyland, who was an heir to an estate. He was sentenced on multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter (vehicular manslaughter due to intoxication).

— $23,090 from Matthew Davis, from rental property he owns. Davis was sentenced for abandonment of a body and multiple counts of possession of a controlled substance.

— $17,172 from Jesse Wayne Smith, who received a workers’ compensation settlement. He was sentenced for multiple counts of second-degree assault.

MIRA allows the attorney general to take legal action to recover up to 90 percent of an inmate’s estate after any obligations to spouse or children are met.

The average annual cost of incarceration in the Missouri Department of Corrections in approximately $15,000 per offender.