Section 45-49-83.41 - Creation; procedures; collection and distribution of funds; enforcementThe District Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama may establish a Recovery Unit of the Special Services Division. The district attorney, after electing to establish the unit, shall assign sufficient staff and resources to effectively operate the unit. The recovery unit shall be created for the purpose of the administration, collection, and enforcement of court costs, fines, fines for failure to appear in court, victim compensation assessments, bail bond forfeitures, restitution, or other payments which are ordered in any criminal proceeding, quasi-criminal, or any other court proceeding by any court including, but not limited to, municipal courts, district courts, and circuit courts payable to the state, the county, to any municipality, or town within the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, to any crime victim on any court order or judgment entered which has not been otherwise vacated or judicial relief given from the operation of the order or judgment, and to enforce the obligations imposed by the receipt of traffic citations.
(1) After a defendant becomes delinquent in paying a court-ordered sum resulting from any criminal proceeding or has failed to appear in court as required by the receipt of a traffic citation, the court may issue a writ of arrest and then notify the recovery unit that the writ has been issued.(2) Upon receipt of the warrant for the arrest of the delinquent defendant, the recovery unit shall issue a notice to the individual that a warrant has been issued for his or her arrest. The notice may be sent by mail or delivered in person. The notice shall inform the defendant that he or she may be eligible for deferred prosecution for violation of the court's order by voluntarily surrendering to the recovery unit within 10 business days from the date of the notice.(3) Upon voluntary surrender, the defendant may be presented with the arrest warrant and prosecution may be deferred upon payment of the previously ordered sums to the recovery unit. Upon election by the recovery unit, the defendant may sign an agreement which contains the terms by which the previously ordered sums and a service charge may also be paid. In the event of unpaid traffic citations, the recovery unit may obtain from the defendant an agreement to pay such sums as agreed upon by the court involved to be imposed for the offense charged in the citation.(4) After issuing the notice, if the defendant does not voluntarily surrender to the recovery unit within the 10 business days prescribed in the notice, the writ of arrest may be prosecuted.(5) The recovery unit shall assess and collect a service charge of 30 percent of the total amount of the court-ordered sum or the sum which the court has agreed to accept in the case of unpaid traffic citations for each defendant referred to the recovery unit. This service charge shall be added to the sum of the total amount owed by the defendant. After collection, the 30 percent service charge shall be paid to the Mobile County Treasury in a fund known as the Recovery Unit Fund and distributed as follows: a. Seventy percent of the funds collected as service charges shall be used and expended by the district attorney to defray the lawful expenses incurred by the office of the district attorney. The district attorney may requisition and expend these funds for those purposes. The treasurer or other authorized officer of the county shall make disbursement of the funds upon requisition of the district attorney.b. Thirty percent of the funds collected by the recovery unit as a service charge shall be distributed. 1. The municipal court funds received from the service charge shall be distributed to the city general fund. The city may disburse the funds as deemed necessary.2. The district and circuit court funds received from the service charge shall be distributed to the Mobile County Community Corrections Center to be expended for any lawful purposes related to the operation of the Mobile County Community Corrections Center.(6) The distribution of the funds pursuant to subdivision (5) shall not reduce the amount payable to the district attorney or to the court under any other existing state, local, or general legislative act or acts, or otherwise reduce or affect the amount of funding of the budget of the court as otherwise allocated. The funds shall be audited pursuant to existing law.(7) The remainder of the fees, fines, penalties, charges, court costs, assessments, restitution amounts, and bail bond forfeitures, collected by the recovery unit, before the deduction for service charges, shall be paid to the court having jurisdiction for disbursement in accordance with existing law.(8) After a defendant has been sent notification by mail of the warrant issued for arrest and upon voluntarily surrendering to the recovery unit, the unit may enter into an agreement with the defendant as to the terms by which the defendant shall satisfy payment of the previously court-ordered sums and service charges to the recovery unit. The terms of the agreement shall be determined on a case-by-case basis by the recovery unit. The initial duration of any agreement shall not be longer than six months at which time a review shall be conducted to determine if the agreement should be extended or voided. No interest may be charged or collected by the recovery unit. The agreement shall be signed by the defendant and shall be ratified by the recovery unit before the agreement becomes effective. If the defendant does not honor the agreement, the office of the district attorney may proceed with the prosecution of the defendant.(9) Upon the failure of the defendant to comply with the terms of the agreement signed by the defendant or failure to voluntarily surrender to the recovery unit, the office of the district attorney may proceed with the enforcement of the court's order of arrest. The defendant shall be required to satisfy all conditions of the court's order as well as all service charges assessed pursuant to this subpart. This subpart shall not prohibit the office of the district attorney from proceeding with the prosecution of any violation as currently provided by law.(10) This subpart encompasses the collection of all fines, costs, victim compensations, bail bonds, forfeitures, penalty payments, restitutions, unpaid traffic citations, or like payments which are unpaid in whole or part as of and after July 31, 1995.Ala. Code § 45-49-83.41 (1975)