Arizona stands to save $500,000 a year under a new law that requires parolees to pay a portion of their drug-testing fees each month, but prisoner advocates fear the additional costs will strain personal budgets.

The law goes into effect Thursday, but Arizona Department of Corrections legislative liaison Jennifer Bowser said the state has yet to determine how much the parolee will pay and when the new requirement will actually be implemented.

"This change is an efficiency, cost-saving thing," Bowser said.

Prisoner advocates fear the additional cost to parolees -- who sometimes receive $50 upon release and can already be stretched thin by mounting fees for restitution, supervision and intensive parole -- will leave many scraping for cash, said Donna Leone Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform.

"It's difficult to find a job and housing, and now they want to tack on yet another cost," Leone Hamm said.

Cost-saving initiative

Parolees who were charged with a drug-related offense or have a history of drug use must comply with random drug testing as part of their parole.

The Treatment Assessment Screening Center assigns parolees a color and each week announces which color will be tested. The 12 Arizona centers conduct all drug tests for the Department of Corrections.

The tests -- nearly 230,000 in 2011 -- cost the state about $500,000 per year, Bowser said.

"Our primary focus is public safety, so we were looking for an efficient, affordable way to provide that," Bowser said.

The law requires some parolees to pay a portion of the drug-testing costs, which vary by county. Maricopa County's cost is $7.80, Bowser said. The portion parolees will pay cannot exceed the amount the test costs to issue, according to the law. Parolees will only be charged once a month, regardless of whether their color is called more than once or if they repeat a test.

Legislators have yet to determine the portion paid by each tested parolee, but Bowser said it would be the same price for all parolees across the state.

"It's important we be fair," she said.

Monetary concerns

Leone Hamm fears the new law won't be implemented fairly. She fears the price of drug tests for parolees will skyrocket, leaving them reaching into their pockets for nickels and dimes that are not there. It's not charging for tests that concerns Leone Hamm, but what she says is a lack of specificity in the law.

"It's OK to charge them ... we're also concerned about how they arrive at the cost per test," she said.

The New York-based Brennan Center for Justice is a public-policy organization that focuses on democracy and justice issues. Roopal Patel, an attorney at the center, said fees building up on released prisoners make it nearly impossible for them to get above water.

"(These fees) are a revenue source for courts facing budget crises, and they fill it on the backs of poor people going through the criminal-justice system," Patel said.

The Department of Corrections will determine a person's ability to pay the fees on a case-by-case basis and could waive fees for those who cannot pay, but Bowser said there are no set guidelines to determine that.

"If an offender can't pay the fee, the department will pay it ... this isn't a black-and-white issue," Bowser said. "Someone with four kids will have more difficulty paying the fee than someone without any kids."

But Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, who opposed the bill, said it would be just as easy to have the department pay for everyone.

"When they first get out of prison, they're trying to find jobs ... they have no money, no job, and the little money they have will go to pay for a drug test," Fillmore said. "Why doesn't the state just do it for them? It's an undue burden when they should be trying to rehabilitate these people."

Rep. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, who sponsored the bill, did not return calls seeking comment.