RICHMOND, Va. – Incarcerated people and their loved ones will continue to pay fees that advocates and some lawmakers say are too stiff.
Senate Bill 581, introduced by Sen. Joseph Morrissey, D-Richmond, initially proposed to eliminate jail fees related to the costs of an inmate’s keep, work release, or participation in educational or rehabilitative programs. Additional costs include telephone services, commissaries and electronic visitation systems.
Paulettra James, the co-founder of Sistas in Prison Reform, said she spent thousands of dollars providing funds for her son and husband, both of whom are incarcerated. Her husband is currently incarcerated at Deerfield Correctional Facility in Southampton County and her son is at Coffeewood Correctional Center in Culpeper. The fees go toward commissary expenses, phone calls, stamps and taxes, James said.
Lawmakers opt for study over elimination of jail, prison fees
I worked at Coffeewood a couple of years and they made around 5% on commissary and that "profit" went right back into the inmate fund to offset the cost of sports equipment, their TV service, the library, and such.
That said the part that got me was the whole phone call thing, most of it it provided by Securus and they really rape the convicts and their families on phone calls. Then again if you was to go back to the old way of convict phone calls you would have to hire extra staff to deal with it on the large units like Coffeewood.
Securus Technologies - Wikipedia
Otherwise this is just another in a long line of "coddling convicts" moves by the dems....One of which was locked-up himself.
Prison is not supposed to be fun and the convicts are masters of manipulation as far as getting their families to pay for things like their phone calls. They get a "free letter" every week so they should communicate that way. The state (VDOC) should have no financial responsibilities as far as a convict's family goes. If they are spending their money on some convict then that is on them.
Senate Bill 581, introduced by Sen. Joseph Morrissey, D-Richmond, initially proposed to eliminate jail fees related to the costs of an inmate’s keep, work release, or participation in educational or rehabilitative programs. Additional costs include telephone services, commissaries and electronic visitation systems.
Paulettra James, the co-founder of Sistas in Prison Reform, said she spent thousands of dollars providing funds for her son and husband, both of whom are incarcerated. Her husband is currently incarcerated at Deerfield Correctional Facility in Southampton County and her son is at Coffeewood Correctional Center in Culpeper. The fees go toward commissary expenses, phone calls, stamps and taxes, James said.
Lawmakers opt for study over elimination of jail, prison fees
I worked at Coffeewood a couple of years and they made around 5% on commissary and that "profit" went right back into the inmate fund to offset the cost of sports equipment, their TV service, the library, and such.
That said the part that got me was the whole phone call thing, most of it it provided by Securus and they really rape the convicts and their families on phone calls. Then again if you was to go back to the old way of convict phone calls you would have to hire extra staff to deal with it on the large units like Coffeewood.
Securus Technologies - Wikipedia
Otherwise this is just another in a long line of "coddling convicts" moves by the dems....One of which was locked-up himself.
Prison is not supposed to be fun and the convicts are masters of manipulation as far as getting their families to pay for things like their phone calls. They get a "free letter" every week so they should communicate that way. The state (VDOC) should have no financial responsibilities as far as a convict's family goes. If they are spending their money on some convict then that is on them.
