Just today issues on corrections in Arizona were in the news. Over the past year, that's really nothing new after the furor begun by SB 1070 brought that state's operations involving incarceration into national prominence.
I wrote a few weeks back about Jan Brewer's refusal to divert any of the federal stimulus money Arizona got toward paying for needed transplants. She stated at the time that those wanting more funding for medical transplant issues ask the federal government for it. During the debate and focus on what Brewer spent her "discretionary" portion ($185 million) of the stimulus money on, it was discovered she diverted $50 million to corrections - but refused to even reconsider reducing the amount given to corrections to cover critical and life saving transplants needed by her constituents.
The article about Arizona corrections informed that even in the face of millions out of jobs and government employee slots being cut back - with government workers who remain taking pay cuts or loss of other benefits due to the economy - Brewer is dedicating another $63.6 million to prison operations!
It would appear this Governor is entirely devoid of shame when it comes to her connections to and support of prisons and especially private prison corporations such as CCA and Geo Group. I mean let's look at this situation realistically:
- On December 11th she revealed the diversion of $50 million in discretionary stimulus dollars to the ADOC;
- On the same date she declares no money for transplants to save the lives of Arizona citizens who are unable to pay for the transplants and need a mere $1.4 million (in an era where a million dollars is "pocket change" to states) to shore up the states Medicaid program, and,
- On January 15th - just over a month later - Brewer announced she is pledging another $63.6 million to corrections. $8.4 million (first year cost) to hire an additional 306 new "detention officers" over next three years and $55.2 million from capital funding and bonds, for repairs and maintenance to existing facilities and "pay hikes". The ADOC Commissioner says they're trying to re-build after cutting 500 jobs in '06.
Okay...that's $113 million pledged to corrections in just over one month. What the hell is Arizona - and more specifically Jan Brewer - doing here? While Florida, Indiana, Ohio, New York and several other states are looking for way to reform their criminal justice laws and reduce incarceration, Brewer is busy shoveling more and more money into CCA, Geo Group and what remains of the non-privatized state prisons. Is it just me or is there something completely wrong with this picture?
Is it possible with all the attention over the past week concentrating upon the terrible shooting in Tucson, that Brewer and her CCA lobbyists decided the time is ripe to take advantage of the public sentiment on crime and shove through more funds to the private contractors? Something is amiss in Arizona with all their concentration on locking up everyone possible and making money off of it.
In the same article another proposed idea is to charge a fee to anyone wishing to visit prisoners in Arizona. Let's take a look at the statement made by the ADOC Commissioner:
"Corrections Director Chuck Ryan said the agency is trying to rebuild after the state eliminated more than 500 positions in 2006.
'"That led to increased assaults against staff by inmates" and more inmate violence, he said. "It was a safety issue."
'The new hires also will reduce overtime costs.
'A new fee on visitors, estimated at $25 a year, would provide $2.3 million to help defray the costs of background checks.
'"Visitation is a privilege," Ryan said. "If it's something that is valued and important to the inmate and the family. This is a way to offset some of those costs."
'Overall, the corrections budget would see an $8.4 million increase, to $957 million, for fiscal 2012.'
Okay, that one's over the friggin' top, folks. I have to add this one to all of the other "costs" of incarceration that are already being passed along to the families and friends of those incarcerated. Not just in Arizona, but elsewhere.
First I want to inform that as well as the rest of you, I recognize the current economy and state of unemployment is hard and tough on all of us. Everyone but the top one or two percent of our society is having to stretch what money they have to make ends meet. I acknowledge that and realize it's the same for state and federal budgets right now. Everything is being tightened or cut back with the exception of spending on corrections in Arizona and a couple of other states.
With that in mind let's take an in depth look at corrections and the impact upon not only inmates serving time or sitting in jails, but their families as well.
Due to "security" the ability to send packages of clothes, hygiene and other items to inmates has been stopped nearly everywhere. In place of that the family is told to send money to the inmate and he can buy what isn't provided by the state from inmate commissaries and canteens. Of course this totally eliminates the ability to buy sale or discounted close-out items and send them in. So the money sent in to inmates is used to buy products at the retail cost.
Now when I say retail, keep in mind that in prison this means the inmate buys the products from a "corporate" store under exclusive contract to the DOC's. The price set is what is paid and in almost every instance the cost of the items - from tennis shoes, to watches, honey buns, cigarettes, T-shirts, shorts and drinks - are all priced higher in prison than they are in your local convenience stores. This means instead of sending an inmate $30.00 in discounted items, the family is required to send him/her as much as $50.00 for the purchase of the same items from the company store.
This $50.00 that is sent in to the inmate is received by the banks that hold the contract to handle inmate accounts. Upon receipt of that money, the inmate is charged between $4.00 and $6.00 as a handling fee allowed under the contract terms. Before he/she can get the money, any medical or other fees owed by the inmate are taken out.
Each visit to the medical or dental departments result in a copay of between $4.00 and $10.00 being charged to and taken out of the inmate's account. This money goes to the private corporation providing healthcare under a contract with the DOC and is provided for in the contract terms.
When the inmate calls home, the phone service is provided by another private corporation under contract to the DOC. The rates charged by the contractor include connectivity charges, surcharges and per minute costs of up to $2.40 cents. State and federal taxes are levied upon the total cost of the call and when the call is terminated, a 15 minute call may cost as much as $22.00. Except in rare cases all of the phone calls are collect and charged to the family member or friends phone bill. That's bad enough, but these phone companies that handle corrections calls aren't satisfied waiting on you to pay your phone bill to get their money. No, they demand that families set up accounts with them directly and prepay a minimum of $50.00 to $100.00 to activate the account. This is so the minute a call is made and terminated, the company has their money from the prepaid account.
Mail is also impacted by our economy - in the free world as well as prison environments. Toady many jails and some prisons have decided to limit the exchange of written communications between an inmate and those on the outside. They are eliminating letters completely. Floridawas a pioneer in this limitation (behind Arizona) and many countiesand state have followed suit. The purpose behind this "new" policy? Here's what one jail official had to say:
"Doug Tobin, spokesman for the Pasco sheriff's office, said the policy is preventing much less contraband from entering the jail. Besides that, Tobin said inmates are actually getting their mail much quicker.
'"We see the savings in basically being able to spend more time supervising the inmates, as opposed to spending time sifting through the mail," he said."'
In another Florida county that has already put the restriction in place, they said:
“The change will free up staff time that otherwise would be used to screen the incoming and outgoing mail,” said Director Quintieri. “It also makes the mail more secure.”
"Under the new guidelines, postcards sent to inmates must be no smaller than 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches and no larger than 4 1/4 by 6 inches.
"Only metered-postage post cards will be accepted. Picture postcards are not acceptable.
"Mail postmarked before January 14th and delivered after the new policy takes effect will be accepted and delivered to the inmates."
On May 1, 2007 Maricopa County Sheriff began allowing prisoners to receive postcards only. It makes no sense to me - especially when the cards have to be "metered" which means a trip to the post office for the person wanting to communicate with a prisoner.
Visitation is difficult for most families with someone in prison. Prior to being sent to prison inmates are held in the locality where they were arrested, which is usually close to home and within the community here they live. Once sent off to prison, however, that is not the case. It used to be that inmates were deliberately sent to the prison facility closest to their home and family so visitation would be available.
With the increased privatization of prisons, CCA, Geo and others now ship prisoners all over the state and in more than half the cases, ship inmates from state to state in an effort of keeping their beds full at certain facilities. I mean, they're only inmates right? So who cares? seems to be the attitude. In addition many states have followed suit and now put an inmate where they want according to bed space and/or need for any job skills the inmate has and the prison or industry needs..
So now, anyone wanting to visit a loved one or friend in prison has long travel ahead of them to reach the prisons located deep in the rural areas of the states. Gas, food and motels for a night are added to the cost of visiting. In addition it used to be allowed to bring in cooked food or fast food to share with the prisoner. Not any more (security you know. They may try and slip marijuana in disguised as a chicken leg or hot dog). Instead in most states they have set up vending machines and microwaves in prison visiting parks. The products are provided by a private corporation contracting with the state. the prices of those products are cheaper to the staff members of the prison and in most cases cheaper at the inmate canteens. This further exploits the visitor.
Due to the length of travel and expenses associated with visitation: cost of food, motels and gas, visitation is reduced from every weekend to once a month or sometimes every two months.
Maybe the most critical and thus dangerous new policies put in place by prisons is limiting meals. Many institutions and jails have decided to stop serving three meals a day and instead serve only two. Many states have done this including; New York, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Maricopa County Jail (Sheriff Joe), Georgia and Ohio and South Carolina.
Florida, Vermontand Illinois, still serves inmates three meals a day but they have cut out most meats entirely. They now serve Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) instead of meats. Both states openly state that they do so as a "cost cutting measure". In Illinois this has led to a class action lawsuit. It's not just Soy or TVP that's causing inmates to lose weight and complain. Hereis a link to a PLN article that was just published today that describes the many ways in which authorities and corporations involved in feeding inmates are cutting corners to save a buck or make a buck. Believe me when you finish the PLN article above, be ready to grab a sandwich...just reading it will make you hungry!
The soy however, resulted in the Illinois litigation because the FDA limits the healthy intake of soy or TVP to 25 grams a day. The plaintiffs assert they are receiving more than 100 grams a day and suffering heart problems and allergic reactions to the intake of that much soy. In addition Soy and TVP are rich in estrogen, a hormone that adversely affects men in a prison setting.
Not surprisingly, the reduced meals and substitution of Soy and TVP for meats in jails and prisons, drives inmates to seek other sources of nutrition. They find that at the canteens and commissaries operated by the corporation set up to profit from their hunger.
To keep their loved ones fed,families have to send money in to the inmate incarcerated...and the cycle begun above starts all over again.
So as the foregoing demonstrates, the cost of incarceration is not only expensive to taxpayers, it is doubly expensive to those taxpayers who are unfortunate enough to have a friend or family member in jail or prison. They not only have to pay the costs of incarceration with their tax dollars, they also have to fund feeding them, outrageous phone charges, travel and motel expenditures to see them and now are being forced to buy postcards and take them to the post office to write to their loved ones.
The most affluent of families are able to afford quality attorneys to keep their family members out of jail and prison, those of us with less income and social status within the suffering middle class and those below the poverty line are the ones family incarcerated. Thus it is simply another form of class warfare - intended or not. I say this because those who can least afford the extra burden of paying additional costs of incarceration are the ones who unfortunately have family in prison and are forced to foot the bill.
For every dollar saved by the state and private prison authorities inmate's families have to replace that expense with as much as $.50 cents out of their meager income and the money they send in goes to the coffers of those set-up to make a profit; canteens, commissaries, health care and and soy producers of all people.
Next time you pass by a group of prison workers alongside the highway or roads cutting grass or picking up trash, keep in mind that their families are having to fund their incarceration because of cut-backs made by cities, counties and states. That the funding from their families is not going to offset costs of incarceration, rather to increase profits of those partnered with our prisons and jails.
It is nothing less than a surcharge or tax placed upon families who are unlucky enough to have a loved one in prison. Corporations have found a way to profit off of prisoners even from a distance - through their families.