Why Inflation Price Hikes Are Even Worse Behind Bars
The Marshall Project reviewed commissary prices from 26 state prison departments in 2022, finding that prices for food and hygiene products have soared across prisons due to the lack of …
Corrections Fees
SMH: The Rapid & Unregulated Growth of E‑messaging in Prisons
Text-based electronic messaging or “e-massaging,” not to be confused with emailing, has exploded in the past decade. At least 43 state prison systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) …
Community Supervision Part 1: Fees and Fines
Financial penalties can serve as a barrier to successful rehabilitation and reentry. In addition to fines and restitution, probationers and parolees can be assessed supervision fees, court fees, technology fees, …
Policy Blueprint For Ending Carceral Profiteering
Each year, over 4,000 private corporations generate $80 billion by exploiting incarcerated people’s need to stay in contact with their loved ones and access medical care, quality food, and hygiene …
Removing Barriers to Youth and Family Success: The Role of State Juvenile Cost of Care Fees
For youth in Idaho, courts assess fines and fees with little regard for how their lives may be affected. Cost of care fees, also known as parent reimbursement fees, can …
Reduction or Elimination of Costs and Fees Charged to Inmates in State Correctional Facilities
At the directive of bills from the Virginia Senate and House, the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) organized a work group to make recommendations regarding the reduction or elimination of …
Surviving Austerity: Commissary Stores, Inequality and Punishment In The Contemporary American Prison
As mass incarceration exploded in the 1980s, so did fiscal austerity, leading to the use of monetary sanctions and user fees to shift the financial burden from taxpayers to those …
Revenue Over Public Safety
Economic and financial incentives for law enforcement, state, local and federal governments, and for-profit private corporations have fueled punitive enforcement and mass incarceration. This report details economic incentives that are …
Forcing People To Pay For Being Locked Up Remains Common
Across all 50 states, states and municipalities charge children and adults for their incarceration. Some states sue incarcerated individuals for the total cost of incarceration, often ranging from $10,000 to …
How Corporations Turned Prison Tablets Into a Predatory Scheme
Tablets have become another commodity that predatory corporations use to price gouge incarcerated people. In 2017, JPay distributed free mini-tablets to the prison population in New York, providing access to …