Prisons and profits: legalized extortion of inmates and families

Want to call? Email? Visit by video? It will cost you, big time

A 2014 survey by a coalition of organizations found that 1 in 3 families with incarcerated members go into debt to pay the costs of staying connected through calls and visits to jails and prisons. (Specifically, the most frequently cited barriers are the cost of phone calls [69%], travel [47%] and other expenses related to visits [46%].) “Families are often forced to choose between supporting their incarcerated loved ones and paying for the basic needs of family members who live outside,” the report concludes.

I am “fortunate” to have served the majority of my time in federal institutions, where the cost of calls and email is not as high as in state prisons or county jails — although it also meant being sent hundreds or thousands of miles away from home. So, I was not prepared for the shock and outrage of the costs when I was transferred from the D.C. jail to Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, in transit to the U.S. penitentiary in Coleman, Florida.

I have been here barely two weeks and already, I have spent almost $500. When I first arrived, I was given a bed roll (a blanket and two sheets), two inmate jumpers, a hotel-sized bar of soap, a toothbrush, a comb, a small tube of toothpaste, a washcloth and a towel. Anything else — drawers (underwear), socks, even a piece of paper and a pen — you have to buy from the commissary. On my first night, I lay in bed cold and shivering, naked underneath my prison-issued jumper, because I had to wait to buy anything else from the commissary. Since money doesn’t transfer between institutions, you start with zero and that means you’ve got to use the one free call they give you to ask a relative or friend to send some funds. If you don’t have anyone who can do that, you’re really out of luck.

The extortion doesn’t stop there. You’re constantly bombarded from all angles, profit-making is…