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I Want My Four Dollars!
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Apalled
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Just read the article below and then figure out how many times you shake your head in bewilderment. Jeez, how low can we go? First the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, now this!?! Poor comparison aside, though, this new fund-raising measure seems downright silly to me.
So what does a prisoner who has no money and needs no personal account do? Can you have bad credit in prison? Wonder how much of the proceeds Jeb Bush is getting?
***UNSCRUPULOUSLY COPIED FROM THE SEATTLE POST***
Fla. prisoners pay for spending accounts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida inmates have begun paying a $4 monthly fee on their prison spending accounts - a fee that is charged even if a prisoner has no money or doesn't want an account.
The fee, which the 56 state prisons began collecting Friday, will generate some $3.5 million annually for the state. Each of the more than 80,000 inmates is required to have an account.
Money gifts from outsiders are deposited, as well as any money earned from prison jobs. Inmates can use the accounts to buy things not provided by the state, such as deodorant, snack food and extra clothing such as tennis shoes and long underwear.
Hannah Floyd, an inmate's wife and leader of the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group, said the fee penalizes families and charities that contribute to the inmate banking accounts.
"The men are upset. Some of these guys are on a shoestring budget, trying to make it with close to nothing. If you have $10 a month to get by on and the state takes four, your whole budget totally collapses," Floyd said Monday in an e-mail.
Prisoners are prohibited from carrying money or receiving goods from outside prison.
The fee was approved in an unanimous vote of the Legislature earlier this year. State Rep. Fred Brummer said he sponsored the provision at the request of the Department of Corrections, so it could recoup what it spends maintaining inmate accounts.
"It's like the same fee you and I pay for bank service charges," said Brummer, a Republican.
Peter Siegel, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute, said a lawsuit filed July 23 in Tallahassee challenges the fee on grounds it was included in a bill on more than one subject. The institute also believes the fee is unfair.
So what does a prisoner who has no money and needs no personal account do? Can you have bad credit in prison? Wonder how much of the proceeds Jeb Bush is getting?
***UNSCRUPULOUSLY COPIED FROM THE SEATTLE POST***
Fla. prisoners pay for spending accounts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida inmates have begun paying a $4 monthly fee on their prison spending accounts - a fee that is charged even if a prisoner has no money or doesn't want an account.
The fee, which the 56 state prisons began collecting Friday, will generate some $3.5 million annually for the state. Each of the more than 80,000 inmates is required to have an account.
Money gifts from outsiders are deposited, as well as any money earned from prison jobs. Inmates can use the accounts to buy things not provided by the state, such as deodorant, snack food and extra clothing such as tennis shoes and long underwear.
Hannah Floyd, an inmate's wife and leader of the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group, said the fee penalizes families and charities that contribute to the inmate banking accounts.
"The men are upset. Some of these guys are on a shoestring budget, trying to make it with close to nothing. If you have $10 a month to get by on and the state takes four, your whole budget totally collapses," Floyd said Monday in an e-mail.
Prisoners are prohibited from carrying money or receiving goods from outside prison.
The fee was approved in an unanimous vote of the Legislature earlier this year. State Rep. Fred Brummer said he sponsored the provision at the request of the Department of Corrections, so it could recoup what it spends maintaining inmate accounts.
"It's like the same fee you and I pay for bank service charges," said Brummer, a Republican.
Peter Siegel, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute, said a lawsuit filed July 23 in Tallahassee challenges the fee on grounds it was included in a bill on more than one subject. The institute also believes the fee is unfair.
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