16-22-109 - Collection and assessment of fees
16-22-109. Collection and assessment of fees
(a) The clerks of all courts of general sessions, circuit and criminal courts and municipal courts exercising the jurisdiction of courts of general sessions shall collect the sum of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) from any person who:
(1) Enters a plea of guilty;
(2) Enters a plea of nolo contendere;
(3) Is adjudicated at trial;
(4) Enters a plea pursuant to any of the diversionary sentencing statutes to any criminal offense described in subsection (b), for attempt or conspiracy to commit any such offense or for aiding, abetting or acting in the capacity of an accessory in the commission of any such offense; or
(5) Is found in violation of the terms and conditions of a suspended sentence imposed for any criminal offense described in subsection (b).
(b) The fee established in subsection (a) applies to any offense under the Tennessee Drug Control Act, compiled in title 39, chapter 17, part 4.
(c) The clerks of all courts of general sessions, circuit and criminal courts and municipal courts exercising the jurisdiction of courts of general sessions shall collect the sum of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) from any person who is found in violation of the terms and conditions of a suspended sentence imposed for any criminal conviction in which the violation is premised upon a positive drug screen.
(d) This assessment shall be subject to § 8-21-401 and shall be in addition to all other taxes, costs and fines. The first five dollars ($5.00) of each such assessment shall be paid to the clerks of the court imposing assessment, who shall transfer it to the state treasurer, who shall credit it to the general fund and earmark it for use by the department of finance and administration, office of criminal justice programs, for funding drug court treatment program administration and funding such grant awards as are made by the department of finance and administration, office of criminal justice programs. The remainder of the assessments shall be deposited by the clerk of the collecting court into a dedicated county fund. The fund shall not revert to the county general fund at the end of the fiscal year, but shall remain for the purposes set out in this section. The money shall be used by the county exclusively for the creation and maintenance of state drug court treatment programs as defined in § 16-22-104. In the event no drug court treatment program operates in a county, the remainder of the funds from that county shall be remitted annually in full to the state of Tennessee to be placed in the drug court treatment program resources fund to be administered by the department of finance and administration, office of the criminal justice programs, in accordance with § 16-22-110. The comptroller's regular audit of a local government shall also include the dedicated county fund established by this section.
(e) The funds collected from this assessment are dedicated to the administration and operation of drug court treatment programs created by courts exercising criminal jurisdiction.
[Acts 2003, ch. 335, § 1; 2005, ch. 429, § 2; 2007, ch. 375, §§ 4-6.]