San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

Report: Prison commissaries have legal monopoly

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lack of competition results in soaring costs for prisoners

The costs taxpayers spend to incarcerate men and women are often augmented by prisoners and their families, according to a study by Prison Policy Initiative (PPI).

For the basic necessities state prisons do not provide, prisoners must find a way to fill this deficit. Prison commissaries are one method of transference of a state’s obligation to care for prisoners. The result, more often than not, is the enrichment of private companies that provide packages to prisoners, PPI reported.

“Commissary operators have a legal monopoly,” according to PPI, “so they don’t have to worry about price competition, and thus do not incur costs associated with special sales or discounts.”

PPI analyzed commissary sales in Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington and, “We found that incarcerated people in these states spent more on commissary than our previous research suggested, and most of that money goes to food and hygiene products.”

“In Illinois and Massachusetts, incarcerated people spent an average of over $1,000 per (prisoner) at the commissary during the course of a year,” PPI report- ed. “Per-person commissary sales for the three sampled states amounted to $947, well over the typical amount incarcerated people can earn working regular prison jobs in these states ($180 to $660 per year).”

“Incarceration is becoming increasingly expensive — especially for those behind bars and their families”

“I remember when we could still get packages from home,” said Steve ‘Rhashiyd’ Zinnamon, 53, a prisoner at San Quentin State Prison, who has been incarcerated since 1995. “That was their [his family’s] way of supplementing to fill the void.”

In California, personal packages mailed from home ended sometime between 2003 and 2004.

The California Code of Regulations, Title 15 states, in part: “Inmate packages shall be ordered by inmates or their correspondents via a departmentally-approved in- mate package vendor.” There are similar provisions to purchase items on the prison commissary or canteen.

“For many people in prison, their meager earnings go right back to the prison commissary, not unlike the sharecroppers and coal miners who were forced to use the ‘company store,’” PPI re- ported.

“You got people that don’t even have a pay number (job) so they can’t even go to the store,” said inmate Eric Post, 54. He also said the price of items on canteen lists in California have increased, but inmate wages have not kept pace with inflation over the years.

According to PPI, when prisoners’ wages can’t cover the cost of canteen items, they have to turn to family members to send money to their prison trust accounts, which means “families are effectively forced to subsidize the prison system.”

Those who have no out- side support can’t afford the canteen. Some turn to prison “underground” economy and the barter system.

Inmates who arrive in California prison reception centers receive a “fish kit” that generally contains a roll of toilet paper, a four-inch tooth brush, a finger-size tube of toothpaste, a comb, a golf pencil, a small bar of soap and a single-blade razor. All food is served in prison dining halls.

“Not surprisingly, food dominates the sales reports.” PPI reported, adding “prison and jail cafeterias are notorious for serving small portions of unappealing food. Another leading problem with prison food is inadequate nutritional content.”

For a price, a prison commissary can serve as a supplement to the deficiency of calories in dining halls, but “it does not compensate for poor quality,” PPI reported. “No fresh food is available, and most commissary food items are heavily processed. Snacks and ready-to-eat food are major sellers, which is unsurprising given that many people need more food than the prison provides, and the easiest — if not only — alter- natives are ramen and candy bars.”

“The poorest people in prison, such as those consid- ered ‘indigent’ by the state, spend little to nothing at the commissary,” PPI reported.

Some California prisoners whose families can afford to make deposits on a loved one’s prison trust account refuse to do so because of the exorbitant percentage of restitution fines imposed by sentencing courts and deducted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

Terry Kitchen, 33, said he used to shop at the prison canteen when restitution was 22 percent. “Because restitution is so high, they’re robbing from my family,” he said.

In the last 20 years, the CDCR has raised the percentage of restitution deductions from inmate trust accounts from 22 percent to 33 percent, 44 percent, reaching its current 55 percent. And, up until a couple of months ago, inmates were charged a $5 copayment for requesting healthcare services.

“Incarceration is becoming increasingly expensive — especially for those behind bars and their families,” PPI reported. “While prisons find new ways to shift the costs of corrections to incarcerated people (think medical co-pays and pay-to-stay fees), vendors are aggressively pushing new digital products that will further monetize incarcerated people.”

The PPI study also outlined the expansive nature of other monopoly contracts given exclusively to vendors serving “a captive market.”

“You got people that don’t even have a pay number (job) so they can’t even go to the store”

“In the long term, when incarcerated people can’t afford goods and services vital to their well-being, society pays the price. In the short term, however, these costs are falling on families, who are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately come from communities of color,” PPI concluded. “If the cost of food and soap is too much for states to bear, they should find ways to reduce the number of people in prison, rather than nickel- and-diming incarcerated people and their families.”

Prison Policy Initiative is a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2001 to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization and spark advocacy campaigns to create a more just society.

Mississippi’s approach to ‘making America safe again’

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Jackson, Mississippi’s approach to making America safe again mandates that any conviction that involves possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime should result in a five-year enhancement of federal prison time.

Project EJECT is the means by which U.S. Attorney Michael Hurst executed his plan to remove violent offenders from communities, reported the Jackson Free Press.

“Today is a new day,” Hurst said. “The message to violent criminals in Jackson is simple: you break the law, you terrorize our neighborhoods and you will be ejected from our community.”

With 343 homicides in 2017, Baltimore “had the highest murder rate in its history, and by far the highest among the nation’s 30 largest cities,” according to The New York Times 1-17-18

In late December of 2017 he called a press conference on the steps of the U.S. District court building in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, to advocate for Project EJECT, according to the article.

Hurst explained that the threat of being shipped away can lower violence. “That’s kind of the deterrent effect that we’re looking at here. I understand the opposing arguments, and that’s definitely a concern.”

The expulsion comes once the person has been convicted, Hurst said. The felon would be incarcerated without parole in the federal system “far, far away from Mississippi,” so that the incarcerated person is unable to continue their criminal activity behind bars.

“…the number of privately held firearms in America has nearly doubled in the last two decades, while the number of gun murders per capita was cut in half.” Reason Magazine December 2017 REASON.COM

The idea is that the criminals would be away from their criminal network, said the Free Press. They would also be removed from their families and any existing support while imprisoned.

Not everyone who has been in prison or involved with efforts to rehabilitate criminals agrees with this approach, however. Sending prisoners far away from their families and expecting them to come back as better citizens doesn’t make sense.

The Free Press reported that every single case Hurst has pursued under Project EJECT involved illegal use or possession of firearms in some way under the initiative.

On Jan. 2, Interim Police Chief Anthony Moore took over the position and has been tight-lipped on virtually all of Jackson’s police matters, including Project EJECT. The Free Press requested an interview with him, but has been denied thus far, the article said.

The citizens of Jackson forced a public comment hearing about Project EJECT, reported the Free Press. On Feb. 27, 2018, during a town hall meeting not every citizen of Jackson supported Project EJECT.

Jacksonian Calandra Davis spoke at great length about the disproportionate effect Project EJECT has on African Americans.

Davis wanted the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe A. Lumumba, to state his opinion of Project EJECT. According to the Free Press, the mayor responded by saying that he does not, nor does his administration, support Project EJECT. 

Recently Phillip Goff, co-founder and president of the Center for Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, investigated the risk of removing people from their social support. He told the Free Press in a phone interview that the criminal-legal system tends to target the poorest, most vulnerable, poorly educated, least advantaged and the least connected to opportunities.

“Who among us,” Goff said, “…can be removed from social networks and become better for it? Any policy that removes someone from their social support is not a policy that is aimed at making them more likely to succeed when they re-enter….”

Inmates who are released from prison unprepared are at a great disadvantage when it comes to employment, health care and taking advantage of services on the outside and, hence, more likely to reoffend.

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html

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Florida reduces in-person visits with more video

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Maison Teixeira

Maison Teixeira

Florida never seems to pass up the opportunity to make a bad situation worse, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Are prison video calls a convenience or a scheme to make money for prison officials?

Florida ignores criminal justice reform and spends around $2.4 billion annually on its prison system, which in this situation means reducing in-person visits, according to Times columnist John Romano.

There are studies that show inmates who stay connected to the outside world are less likely to re-offend. It also leads to better-behaved inmates, who anticipate family visits, according to the article.

“We value in-person visitation; we absolutely do. But given our current (financial) situation, this is our best option for safety reasons,” said Michelle Glady, Department of Corrections (DOC) spokeswoman.

“I know there’s a lot of emotion and fear among family members out there, but we’re not eliminating in-person visitation.”

“The possibility of revenue is probably the leading factor”

The video calls have actually replaced in-person visits in many jails (but not many prisons) around the country, which creates complications with fees for money transfers, services and downloads, according to the article.

“They’re reducing our days so they can make money on video visitation. Money is what motivates these people,” said Jewie Tryon. Her husband is serving a 25-to-life sentence. She has started a petition on change.org to stop the reduction of visiting days.

“When you take away the only honest-to-God reason for rehabilitation these guys have, you’re going to have trouble. I promise you that.”

Her thoughts were echoed by an analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative. “We know family visits reduce recidivism, and they create a safer prison environment,” said Lucius Couloute. “I can’t think of a good reason for wanting to eliminate visiting days. The possibility of revenue is probably the leading factor.”

The DOC acknowledges the power of in-person visits yet the possibility of cutting the visitation in half due to budget issues is still on the table. Their reasons are lack of staff to safely handle weekend visits, according to the article.

Florida had been working for two years with the South Florida contractor JPay, whose opinion is that the video calls are meant to supplement, not replace the contact visits, according to the article. Representatives from JPay were contacted but did not respond to an interview request.

https://www.tampabay.com

Report Indicates Prison Visitation Reduces Violence and Recidivism

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CA bills aim to reform law for juveniles and adults

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Inmate being escorted from his cell
in the San Quentin Adjustment Center

Sacramento, CA —On April 4, the California Senate Public Safety Committee voted to pass Senate Bills 1392 and 1393, half of the Equity and Justice Package, authored by Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). The two Senate leaders are joint authors on bills that together seek major justice reforms for juveniles and adults.

“Mass incarceration is a massive moral failure and policy failure. It’s a moral failure because we now know that it is injurious to families and to the economies of low-income communities, and that its violence has been directed overwhelmingly at Black men and Black women, Latinos and Latinas,” Mitchell said,” according to a press release by Californians for a Responsible Budget (CURB). “As a matter of public policy, paying for long prison sentences is the worst use of public safety dollars. We must stop wasting taxpayer dollars on a failed policy.”

“According to a RAND analysis, every $1 invested in such [inmate] education generates at least $4 in economic return,” reports Fast Company.

“The state typically spends $71,000 a year to house an inmate. It costs about $5,000 total to help put one [incarcerated] student through community college”, reports Fast Company.

The passage out of committee comes in the wake of the California legislature passing two historic sentencing reform measures in 2017: SB 180 (The Repeal of Ineffective Sentencing Enhancements) authored by Mitchell, which repealed the three-year sentence enhancement for prior drug convictions; and SB 620, authored by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), allowing judges to strike unwarranted gun sentence enhancements.

SB 1392, the Repeal Ineffective Sentencing Enhancements (RISE) Act of 2018, authored by Mitchell, repeals California’s one-year sentence enhancement for prior felony convictions and passed with a 5 to 1 vote. SB 1392 would repeal one of the most commonly used sentencing enhancements that adds one year for each previous prison or felony jail term, which impacted one-third of people convicted in 2017.

The Los Angles Police Department (LAPD) doled out almost $81 million in the last fiscal year to settle lawsuits, the Los Angeles Times reported.

SB 1393, the Fair and Just Sentencing Reform Act of 2018, reinstates judicial discretion to the application of the five-year sentence enhancement for each prior serious felony at the time when a person is currently charged with a serious felony. This bill passed the committee with a 5 to 1 vote. According to data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), there are about 100,000 years’ worth of the five-year enhancement applied to people currently under CDCR custody.

“…the number of privately held firearms in America has nearly doubled in the last two decades, while the number of gun murders per capita was cut in half.” Reason Magazine December 2017 REASON.COM

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, “California has more than 100 separate code sections that enhance sentences” based on a person’s current offense and/or record of prior convictions. As of 2016, 79 percent of people under CDCR custody had some kind of sentence enhancement attached to their base sentence; 25 percent had three or more enhancements stacked on.

Proponents of the measures argue that these policies will help restore balance in the judicial process, address extreme sentences, and reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system by preventing people from having their sentences doubled or tripled because of enhancements and reducing jail overcrowding and wasteful spending on incarceration. The bill’s co-sponsors and community members who have experienced extreme sentencing celebrate the passage of this bill out of the Public Safety Committee as a step toward victory for families and communities who have faced separation and destabilization for too long as a result of ineffective “tough on crime” policies that disproportionately target people of color.

“Tennessee is 17.1 percent Black, but Blacks make up 69 percent of all drug-free school zone offenders…” REASON Magazine, January 2018

“These bills are a long overdue step toward restoring fairness in our courtrooms,” said Romarilyn Ralston, of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. “They recognize the critical importance of reunifying parents with their children, which is key to sustaining healthy communities.”

“The outcome of today’s hearing builds on the growing momentum in California to enact criminal justice reforms that divest from ineffective mass incarceration policies and invest in community-based solutions like mental health care, education and substance-use treatment.” said Amber-Rose Howard of CURB. California voters have also shown their support for such reforms by voting for Propositions 47, 64 and 57, and advocates laud lawmakers for demonstrating their commitment to following the will of the people by enacting legislation that prioritizes safety instead of punishment.

Co-sponsors of the legislation include ACLU of California, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Drug Policy Alliance, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Friends Committee on Legislation California, Pillars of the Community, Tides Advocacy, Women’s Foundation of CA, Women’s Policy Institute, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. Euhernandez@drugpolicy.org

Prisoner medical co-pay looks cheap on the surface

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Charging incarcerated people medical co-pays forces them to make difficult choices

Medical co-payments for prisoners nationwide could be doing more damage than good, according to a recent report from the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI).

Wendy Sawyer, author of the PPI report, compared the cost of medical co-pays in prisons and jails to what people on the outside pay, relative to their wages. 

“A $2 to $5 medical co-pay in prison or jail may not seem expensive on its face. But, when we consider the relative cost of these co-pays to incarcerated people who typically earn 14 to 63 cents per hour, it’s clear how they can be cost-prohibitive,” stated the report.

In most states, prisoners pay medical co-payments for physician visits, medications, dental treatment and other health services.

Sawyer calculated how many work hours it would take an incarcerated worker in each state to make a co-payment. She converted the hours of the low-paid incarcerated worker to the minimum wages earned by a non-incarcerated worker in the same state.

“Fees are … meant to deter people from unnecessary doctor’s visits”

In California, prisoners pay a $5 medical co-payment and earn as little as eight cents an hour. It would require 62.5 hours of work to afford one co-payment. The equivalent co-pay for a free Californian earning $10.50 at the state’s minimum wage would be $656.25.

A single doctor visit for an incarcerated West Virginian who makes $6 dollars per month would cost almost an entire month’s pay. The equivalent co-pay, based on that state’s minimum wage and the same 125 hours to earn, would cost $1,093.

“People incarcerated in these states must rely on deposits into their personal accounts — typically from family — to pay medical fees. In most places, funds are automatically withdrawn from these accounts until the balance is paid, creating a debt that can follow them even after release,” reported the PPI.

Sawyer found that 13 states charge medical co-payments that are equivalent to charging minimum-wage workers more than $200.

Texas does not pay incarcerated people for their work; however, it charges a flat $100 yearly health services fee, and some officials are actually trying to double it to $200, said the report.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina also don’t pay prisoners for work but do charge inmates co-pays for medical services.

“Fees are … meant to deter people from unnecessary doctor’s visits. Unfortunately, high fees may be doing more harm than good: deterring sick people from getting the care they really do need,” the PPI report said.

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) said abuses of sick calls can be managed with “a good triage system,” without imposing fees that also deter necessary medical services.

Charging incarcerated people medical co-pays forces them to make difficult choices, said the report. NCCHC warns that co-pays may actually jeopardize the health of incarcerated populations, staff and the public.

“First, when sick people avoid the doctor, disease is more likely to spread to others in the facility — and into the community, when people are released before being treated. Second, illnesses are likely to worsen as long as people avoid the doctor,” said the report.

This could mean more aggressive and expensive treatment when they can no longer go without it.

“Correctional agencies may be willing to take that risk and hope that by the time people seek care, their treatment will be someone else’s problem,” said the report.

Nevertheless, providers must treat people regardless of their ability to pay. Incarcerated people with “low health literacy” may not understand this right, said the report.

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide.

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States upping age for juvenile prosecution

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Some states across the country are increasing the age at which juveniles are prosecuted as adults.

“Legislatures around the country are voting to treat 17-year-old offenders as juveniles,” the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) reported. “Louisiana acted last year, as did South Carolina, leaving just seven states nationwide that still prosecute all youth under 18 as adults,” the JJIE reported.

In April, New York became the latest state to make the decision not to charge juveniles as adults, leaving just six states that still prosecute such juveniles.

“New York, which had automatically treated even 16-year-olds as adults, enacted a sweeping overhaul that included raising the age to 18, effective next year,” the Exchange reported.

These changes are frustrating some lawmakers in states that haven’t made the change in how and when juvenile offenders are prosecuted.

Texas State Rep. Gene Wu said, “So many people here are saying, ‘Well, Texas is Texas, and it doesn’t matter what the rest of the country is doing.’ But it does, and we should do better on this issue.”

Wu has introduced a bill to increase the state’s age of criminal responsibility to 18.

“Last year Texas was one of nine states, and when we filed this bill there were seven, and now six,” Wu said. “North Carolina is probably going to raise the age this year and maybe Georgia, so we just keep falling behind, and there is no reason for it.”

Opponents in Texas argue, “Such measures would cost too much to implement, overrun juvenile justice court systems and could, potentially, leave dangerous youth on the street,” the Exchange reported.

Supporters of lowering the age point to extensive studies that show drastic reductions in recidivism rates and money saved for taxpayers.

“We have statistics showing that 30 percent of all children put into the juvenile system will not reoffend, will never become adult criminals,” said Wu.

“That is tangible. People can see … the savings when you aren’t going to have to keep putting more people into adult prisons, or take care of them when they can’t get a job or a home because they did something stupid as a 17-year-old kid.”

The most important reason to raise the age is because it is the moral thing to do for youth and society, Wu added.

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html

Average inmate pay drops despite billions on prisons

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In a billion-dollar prison labor market, wages for incarcerated people nationwide have declined since 2001, a recent report says.

The April report by Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) said the average minimum wages paid per day to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents, down from 93 cents in 2001. This means that the average maximum daily wage also declined from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today.

“The vast majority of prison labor is not even cloaked in the idea of rehabilitation,” said Heather Thompson of the University of Michigan, as reported in The Economist.

Individual states also employ over 60,000 prison laborers in a market worth well over $1 billion in revenue. California’s industries alone are expected to generate $232 million in sales this year; much of it from construction and textiles; $10 million is also expected from meat-cutting, reported The Economist.

California non-industries jobs pay as low as eight cents to a high of 37 cents per hour, while jobs for state-owned businesses or “correctional industries” pay an hourly low of 30 cents to a high of 95 cents.

“Only about 6 percent of people incarcerated in state prisons earn these ‘higher’ wages,” said the PPI report. “An even tinier portion of incarcerated workers are eligible for ‘prevailing local wages’ working for private businesses that contract with states through the PIE (Prison Industry Enhancement) program.”

At least seven states appear to have lowered their maximum wages. South Carolina no longer pays wages for most regular prison jobs assignments that paid up to $4.80 per day in 2001.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas also don’t pay for regular prison jobs, reported PPI.

The majority of jobs are custodial, maintenance, grounds-keeping or food service in the institutions that confine them.

The report observes that incarcerated people have little possibility of earning “real money” and that “hurts their chances of success when released.” Even so, “The meager earnings from prison work assignments can be essential to a person’s success – and even survival – when they return to their community.

“With little to no savings, how can they possibly afford the immediate costs of food, housing, healthcare, transportation, child support and supervision fees?” asked the PPI report.

On the federal level, the Federal Prison Industries earned $500 million in sales in 2016, while paying prisoners roughly 90 cents an hour to produce everything from mattresses, spectacles, road signs and body armor for government agencies. The prisoners also produced official seals for the Department of Defense and Department of State, a bureau spokesman confirmed to The Economist.

“The question of wages paid for prison labor is an important one, especially when we consider the relative costs of fees charged and things sold to incarcerated people,” said the PPI report. “The value of a dollar is different when you earn pennies per hour.”

These wages don’t include deductions that can be used to pay court-assessed fines, court costs, and victim witness assessments. New Mexico deducts 15 to 50 percent of each paycheck for Crime Victims Reparations Fund, discharge money and family support. California deducts 55 percent (50 percent to court-assessed fines and a 5 percent administrative fee).

“These policies arguably serve legitimate purposes, but such deductions also mean that $1 per day earned to make day-to-day life behind bars more bearable is really 50 cents or even less,” the report noted. 

An incarcerated woman in Colorado has to save up two weeks’ wages to buy a box of tampons, the report stated, while people in a Pennsylvania prison have to save up close to two weeks for a $10 phone card. In Massachusetts, at least half of a prisoner paycheck goes into a savings account to pay for expenses after release.

The public must acknowledge that almost everyone in prison will eventually be released, the report noted.

“Their success and independence depends largely on financial stability, which is undermined by low wages, nickel and diming through ‘user fees,’ mandatory deductions, and work that does little to prepare them for work outside of prisons,” said the report.

“And they may leave prison with just a bus ticket and $50 of ‘gate money,’ if they have no other savings,” the report added. “Forward-thinking policymakers must consider the importance of earnings and relevant job training for people they hope will be independent one day.”

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
 

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US prison commissary giants are set to merge

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As prisoners across the nation wage protests over what they consider slave labor for low or no pay, two of the country’s biggest prison commissary companies are set to merge.

HIG Capital, owner of Trinity Services Group, a commissary and food-service operator, announced that it would be acquiring Keefe Group, one of the largest for-profit operators of prison and jail commissaries, according to a Prison Policy Initiative article.

Throughout the nation, the prison commissary business brings in an estimated $1.6 billion in sales a year. Keefe, Trinity and Aramark are the three companies that dominate this market.

With two companies merging, it would be difficult for smaller firms to outbid for contracts.

Trinity is a member of the American Correctional Association, American Jail Association, National Association of Deputy Wardens, National Sheriff’s Association and various state and county sheriff associations across the nation.

San Quentin is one of the prisons in California that holds a commissary contract with Keefe Group, according to Dineen Parsons, the material and store supervisor.

“Sacramento makes the contracts for all 34 prisons, so I believe we will still get good prices,” said Parsons. “We deal with multiple vendors, so we will probably see increases and decreases throughout the year.”

The merger-created reduction in competition can lead to the same economic distortions that afflicted the prison phone industry, the article noted. Jails and prisons often receive a commission or kickback from commissary operators as well.

The Trinity/Keefe merger could reap annual revenues of $875 million, more than half of the total commissary market.

With jails and prison facilities cutting their food budgets and subsistence, incarcerated people are forced to pay for basic necessities to supplement the food in the cafeteria. This causes commissary orders to increase dramatically, the article noted.

In California state prisons, inmate pay scales run from Level Five laborers at $.08 – $.13 to Level One lead person at $.32 – $.37, according to California Code of Regulations Title 15.

These pay rates translate into $12 to $56 monthly, before the department deducts 55 percent for court-ordered restitutions and administrative fees.

San Quentin commissary has already seen some increases in certain items, according to Parsons, due to changing of contracts.

However, those jails and prison facilities that do want to negotiate for fair pricing will have less leverage and higher prices are a distinct possibility, the Prison Policy Initiative noted.

The Keefe Group is a network of six companies that operate various prison-related businesses.

Access Securepak delivers quarterly packages to inmates, and ICSolutions (short for Inmate Calling Solutions) a communications company, are two of them.

HIG and ICSolutions filed a notice of the sale with the Federal Communications Commission in June.

Keefe and HIG argued in their joint filing with the FCC that the acquisition “will serve the public interest by providing additional capital to ICSolutions, which in turn will enhance its ability to maintain and improve its network and services,” the article reported.

The statement fails to address whether there is actually a lack of adequate capital for ICSolutions or any other Keefe companies.

In 2014, Trinity already acquired Swanson Services Corporation, a leading national provider of commissary products and integrated software services to correctional facilities.

Trinity provides support services to 400 correctional facilities across 33 states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, according to their website.

Given the market shares of Trinity and Keefe, it should be a matter of concern to incarcerated people, their family members and antitrust regulators, the article concluded.

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide.

New Tool to Analyzing Criminal Justice Policy

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Incarceration rates are not the entire story of the criminal justice system. For reformers seeking to rationalize our criminal justice policies, the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) has created a significant new tool for analyzing the complicated issue of developing proposals for reform.
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
The scope of correction control includes federal prisons, 50 state prison systems, thousands of county and local jails, juvenile incarceration, civil commitment, Indian country jails, parole and, most importantly, probation.
According to PPI, “the criminal justice system’s reach in this country is far more expansive than usually assumed.” The national average is 2,111 people under correctional control per 100,000 (pht) residents. California’s rate is 1,582 pht. Georgia is over double the California rate, and Maine has the lowest rate at 858 pht.
The report has identified a tremendous variation between states that is largely driven by differing uses of probation. Fifty-six percent of the people under correctional control in America are on probation. Georgia has 78 percent of the people under its control on probation, while Nevada has 31 percent. Parole (conditional release from prison) makes up 11 percent of the total.
With this new tool, policy makers and reformers can identify the disproportionate use of any given criminal justice policy tool by comparing their local system to other states. For example, Georgia’s probation population pht residents is “greater than every other states’ total rates of correctional control,” according to the PPI press release issued in conjunction with the report.
Of particular concern to the PPI is the need to assess whether the community supervision mechanisms of probation and parole are being used as alternatives to incarceration or “as a net-widener that unnecessarily expands the criminal justice system’s reach to low-level crimes.”
Use of this tool can aid in the objective valuation of existing criminal justice policy mechanisms and identify areas of potential reform.
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/

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Overcrowding in County Jails Changes Bail Practices

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Prison yard 1800s


Overcrowding in county jails has California reviewing its bail practices.
California’s bail practices have clogged the jails and become a tool that preemptively punishes the poor. Many individuals who pose no threat to society are jailed while awaiting trial.
Realignment shifted many state prisoners to county jails.

“64% of California’s jail population is awaiting trial or sentencing as of December 2016.” Most remain in pretrial custody because they cannot afford bail.  Jail Profile Survey, http://www.bscc.ca.gov/

Like a flood moving downstream, this prison to county jail overcrowding has become an urgent issue according to the editorial board of The Sacramento Bee.
Does bail “…really serve its purpose of keeping people safe? Because if you’re wealthy and you commit a heinous crime, you can make bail,” said the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye to the editorial board.
The next phase of criminal justice reform may be the courts. California’s court system promises a fair and speedy trail but only seems to offer a choice between jail or accepting a plea deal for the poor awaiting trial. The median bail for California is $50,000 – about five times that of most other states.
What was once a tool to compel the accused to appear in court has become a trap ensnaring only the poor. “We have to take a look at whether we are contributing to the problem,” Cantil-Sakauye said.
Sixty-two percent of the people in county jails are awaiting trial, estimates The Public Policy Institute of California. This stunning statistic had gone unnoticed until jail capacity became stretched by the influx of prisoners resulting from realignment. Further, realignment has lifted the one-year cap on jail terms so that beleaguered county jails now have some inmates serving sentences of five or more years.
Inspired by Arizona’s and Kentucky’s reform of their pretrial court systems so that bail is rarely used, California is participating in a multistate taskforce to identify alternatives to bail or jail. Sponsored by the Conference of Chief Justices, this taskforce seeks to develop best practices for supervised release programs as an alternative to bail. The recommended reforms may be implemented in numerous states, including California.
While a powerful California bail bond industry challenges the dismantling of the bail system, the federal government may require California to implement alternatives to bail such as those being considered by the taskforce. The U.S. Department of Justice warned in March that “any bail practices that result in incarceration based on poverty violate the 14th Amendment” in response to numerous suits challenging bail practices.
The editorial board of The Sacramento Bee contends that in the current environment of criminal justice reform, the indignity of being poor should not include a bleak choice between pre-trial jail, accepting a one-sided plea deal or being buried under bail debt.
http://sanquentinnews.com/criminal-justice-advocates-seeking-bail-system-reform/
https://sanquentinnews.com/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-czi-aids-programs/

Prison reform could free 30,000 inmates says CSJ


Boatwright