It takes a lot of money and resources for prisons and jails to run as smoothly as possible. Administrators have to cover the costs of food, beds, healthcare, inmate programming, employee salaries and benefits, security, and maintenance. A survey of 40 states determined that, on average, states spend $31,286 a year to incarcerate one person. The hefty price tag is one motivating factor behind some states’ efforts to reform their criminal justice system and do away with harsh sentencing.
Two lawmakers in Massachusetts are taking a different approach to the cost. Massachusetts currently spends at least $53,000 a year on every inmate — $1.2 billion in total. On Tuesday, the senate minority leader proposed a bill that would make 10,000 prisoners bear some of that financial burden.
Under Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr’s (R-Gloucester) latest proposal, inmates would have to pay $2 a day for their food and housing. They would have two payment options: coughing up the money after they re-enter society or using money earned through prison labor. Those who are pregnant, mentally ill, can’t leave their beds, or are considered indigent by the state would not have to pay.
Rep. and co-sponsor Lenny Mirra (R-West Newbury) says the plan has two purposes: saving money and teaching responsibility.
“This would help cover the state’s corrections costs but also put prisoners on a path of responsibility and sustainability,” he said. “It’s a small amount of money, but it’s about teaching them the basic things we want every prisoner to learn before they go back into society.”
But numerous studies show that charging inmates does more harm than good.
According to the Brennan Center, 80 percent of inmates are indigent. Unable to pay incarceration fees, their loved ones are stuck footing the bill. Families shell out thousands of dollars for inmates’ basic needs, including toiletries, clothing, food, and phone time — as well as legal counsel. One report found that the burden takes a disastrous toll on those families, as they are forced to take out loans, find additional work, and sacrifice their own well-being. For example, one woman had to put off college so that her family could give money to her incarcerated brother.
Working in prison is not a viable option, because inmates are paid far below minimum wage for their labor. Most make less than a dollar a day for their work, so having to pay $2 a day would leave them in debt.
Covering the costs of incarceration after serving time is also extremely difficult. Between 60 and 75 percent of people who leave prison can’t secure jobs within the first year of their release. Employees are reluctant to hire people with criminal records, and former inmates who do find work are usually paid far less than their colleagues.
A 2011 report from Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Public Safety and Security stated, “successful reentry, already a challenge, will become a greater challenge because additional fees will decrease the already limited savings and economic resources available to inmates upon release.”
But Massachusetts is not the only state trying to collect money from its prisoners. Illinois has been suing former inmates for room and board costs for years. In one case, the Illinois Department of Corrections filed a $175,000 lawsuit against a man whose cancer it neglected to treat.
Today, nearly every U.S. state allows prison officials to charge pay-to-stay fees.