Court: Illinois inmate must be incarceration costs

LINCOLN - An Illinois appeals court has ruled that a Logan Correctional Center inmate must pay nearly $20,000 from a lawsuit settlement he received toward the cost of his incarceration.

The Fourth District Appellate Court recently made the ruling against Johnnie Melton, 49, a Cook County inmate imprisoned at the Lincoln facility on drug charges, The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reported. Melton received the money from a wrongful death lawsuit involving his mother.

The state's claim on the money applies to Melton's time behind bars from Oct. 28, 2011, to Jan. 8, 2013. Melton had argued that he didn't receive advance notice from the state that it wanted control of his money.

Illinois state law allows the state Department of Corrections to forward information about inmate assets to the state attorney general so that office can request the prisoner help pay incarceration costs.