Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

My brother was incarcerated in Pennsylvania, in a county facility, for 6-24 months as a state inmate for retail theft an M-1. The court rejected his request to be sent to state prison and forced him to serve his sentence in the county jail as a state inmate.

This county jail charges all sentenced inmates a housing fee of $10.00 a day. If you work in the jail they take the ten dollars a day off. My brother was not allowed to work, in the jail, because of physical and mental disabilities. The jail would not allow him to work, thus he did not have the same chances to work off the $10.00 a day, but healthy inmates were. He was released from incarceration after serving his entire sentence because he lived in NY and NY would not supervise a state parolee with a misdemeanor charge. He had a total amount of $7,300.00 owed to the county for housing fees. When he was released from incarceration he could not resume regular work due to his disabilities. The county brought him to court, for contempt of court, and told him if he did not start paying again they would incarcerate him for contempt of court, a charge that carries a sentence of 2-6 months in the county jail, where they add on another $10.00 a day.

My brother could not afford to pay his bills and rent and was evicted from 2 apartments because he had to make the payments to the county. A few months back my brother fell behind in payments because he finally realized he could not pay the county $135.00 a month and support his family when he was not even able to work due to his disabilities. His wife is the only person that makes any type of income for the family. My brother has filed for S.S.I and S.S.D but is now fighting for that due to Social Security denying his request. He received a letter a month ago and was told he had to reappear in court for contempt of court proceedings, again. He did not go because his lawyer told him that he was going to be sent back to jail, no question about it.

My brother has since received a letter stating that there was a bench warrant issued for his arrest. The last sentence and paragraph on the warrant states �Extradition is approved for Pennsylvania only�. It did not say the surrounding states. My brother lives in NY. The sentence seems to state that as long as he does not go into Pennsylvania the police can not detain him for extradition to outside of PA. This is an unscheduled misdemeanor, I am in college studying to become a paralegal and someday a lawyer but I do not know if this can actually be an extraditable offense. This all seems to me like a rotating door created by the county to keep people coming in and out of their jail and paying the housing fees. My brother can not go to jail, he has a cyst in his brain that he is getting treatment for, he has severe seizures that only one medication works and the jail will not prescribe that medication, he has a scheduled surgery for his knee, he has interferon treatments daily. They will not give this care to him in the county jail. They stopped all his treatment at the jail the last time he was sentenced to his first term. If he gets sent back to that jail he faces a serious risk of death due to withdrawl symptoms, from his medication that the jail stopped last time, and his severe illnesses. The mixture of the two would be a death sentence. All over money that should not be owed because the county would not let him work off the $10.00 a day to begin with, because he had too many seizures due to not being given the only medication that works for his seizures.

Like I said I am not a lawyer, but this seems to me that the jail violated the 14th amendment when they did not let him work due to a disability, but allowed healthy inmates the chance to work off the $10.00 a day and a violation of the Americans with disabilities act, for not allowing him to work off the ten dollars a day, but healthy inmates could. It seems unfair and unconstitutional. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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