The federal government is proposing that 75% of the money sent to people’s trust accounts in federal prisons would go to pay fines and victim restitution first, an NPR story reported.
Advocates for incarcerated people claim the proposed new rule would go too far by shifting fiscal responsibility to families members who are trying to make sure their loved ones in prison can pay for basics like postage, hygiene, and commissary supplies.
“It’s really like a sledgehammer, when you could bring a tool that was smaller to address the problem,” said Shanna Rifkin, deputy general counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
The rule proposal was prompted by a Washington Post investigation that disclosed that some wealthy people serving time in federal prison, such as singer R. Kelly, have large prison trust accounts yet their fines and restitution remain unpaid.
Ellen Degnan, an advocate at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that the issue could be solved by having the sentencing court set payment schedules based on individual cases.
The nonprofit Network for Victim Recovery of D.C., a victims’ rights advocacy group, contends that the regulation could make it possible for some victims to receive restitution payments more quickly. Yet even they said that the consequences of any such rule needs to be balanced, according to the article.
Most people in prison are not wealthy, and fines and restitution can be a burden of debit that is hard to overcome, during or after prison.
Renee Hoolans sends her son, Baily Sanders, $75 a month. At a deduction rate of 75%, he would only have $18.75 per month to spend on over-the-counter medication, shoes, and phone calls to his mother, said the article.
“My mother is all that I have, and she can only do so much. The bottom line is I don’t feel that it’s her responsibility to pay my restitution,” Sanders said.
A Bureau of Prisons representative stated, “Commissary accounts are a privilege and the Bureau remains committed to assisting [the incarcerated] in paying their financial obligations.”
