Several new bills are being heard this month related to the Maine Department of Corrections including LD 626: An Act to Explicitly Allow the Department of Corrections to Charge Room and Board to Residents Who Perform Remote Work in Detention and Correctional Facilities and to Amend the Laws Governing Rehabilitative Programs.
Although the idea of “three hots and a cot” for free is the popular belief amongst those who have never experienced prison, it is not the reality for the residents of correctional facilities. There are many costs associated with incarceration that are incurred by both the inmates themselves as well as their families on the outside. The current cost to incarcerate one individual in the state of Maine has grown to $117,000 annually per person. This money covers the cost for basic facility needs like staffing, internet, heat, and electricity. Inmates are required to pay back their fines and restitutions associated with their case, as would be expected. The residents are financially responsible for phone calls, basic hygiene products, food from commissary, and many other things.
Inmates are required to cover copays for medical visits. The current copay is $5 for sick visits and other medical related treatments, with some exceptions. The Department of Corrections is attempting to increase these copays to $25 through a bill they submitted, LD 18: An Act to Allow the Department of Corrections to Increase Health Care Fees and Use the Proceeds from Those Fees to Offset the Costs of Client Medical Care Support Workers.
Phone calls cost $.10 per minute and text messages are sent at $.15 per message. The new tablets provided to the residents are able to receive photos which cost the sender $.20 per photo. The sender is charged whether or not the text or photo is approved by the officer monitoring communication. Printed photos taken at visits cost $2 per photo, which the resident must pay ahead of time before the visit. These fees will be potentially increased under a new bill the Department of Corrections has submitted, LD45: An Act Allowing the Department of Corrections to Offset Some of the Costs of Technology Provided to Residents of Correctional Facilities. These fees would extend to other technologies such as laptops and computers which the residents rely on for educational purposes.
In addition to these new fees being proposed for inmates, the Department of Corrections has eliminated many paid positions previously available for those incarcerated. Paid positions, such as HiSet tutoring and jobs in the recreation department, such as officials to oversee intramural sports, have been changed to volunteer positions. Although these jobs paid very little, a few cents per hour, they provided the inmates with something to rely on to fund their expenses. These positions also gave the residents a sense of purpose as well as teaching job skills and responsibility–soft skills essential to rehabilitation. The funds they earned made them less reliant on loved ones to pay for things like fines, child support, or their basic necessities. This creates a difficult financial situation for both the residents and their families outside. They rely on technology services, such as the phone and texting, in order to maintain relationships with their children and other loved ones.
When residents first heard about LD626 some took a favorable stance believing the money collected from residents with well-paid remote jobs would be allocated to the Inmate Benefit Fund (IBF), which funds resident programming and payment for jobs within the prisons. More money in the IBF would have meant more paid positions for the residents unable to work remotely. What the bill actually proposes is that the money is placed in the General Fund for the state, meaning the money will not necessarily be put back towards off-setting the cost of incarceration for the residents or their families.
The finances of incarcerated individuals are further complicated when we look at the link between poverty and recidivism. The Department of Corrections argues charging for room and board will “normalize” the experience of being incarcerated. That is to say, they will be expected to pay for their living expenses upon release and doing this will train people to manage their money better and pay their way. A felony conviction severely limits a person’s ability to find housing and employment. Homelessness and unemployment are both probation violations and greatly increase a person’s likelihood to reoffend and end up back in prison. Opponents of the bill argue stifling a person’s ability to save money while incarcerated will significantly lower their ability to be successful upon release.
Nicole Lund is a prison reform advocate, artist, speaker, and coauthor of Stuffed Behind Bars: Secret Recipes From Inside Maine State Prison. She holds a BA in Art Administration from the University of Maine at Farmington, where she is currently a Master’s student of Counseling Psychology with a focus on Creative Arts.
