National

Some Prisoners are Forced to Pay for Incarceration

Published

9 years ago

June 3, 2015

By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – More than 40 states allow prison and jails to charge inmates “pay to stay” fees, according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice, a debt burden that reaps billions of dollars for state and local jurisdictions, and disproportionately affects Black inmates and ex-offenders.

The Justice Department’s report on Ferguson, Mo., policy department exposed the role that excessive court fees and fines imposed on the mostly Black residents there were used to bolster the small suburb’s revenue base.

The May 2015 report by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, a nonpartisan legal policy institute, examined the arguments for and against imposing monetary penalties on prisoners and the lasting effects that those policies have on returning citizens and their communities.

According to the Brennan Center report, the mean annual costs to house inmates was nearly $30,000, but some states spent more than $40,000. Jurisdictions spend $80 billion every year in jails and prisons similar to the federal government’s budget for the Department of Education.

The report said that charging inmates fees predates the Civil War with Michigan passing the first correctional fee law in 1846.

The fees range from $10 to booking in some jurisdictions to $300 month for an electric monitoring system. Prisoners are often charged for police transport, case filing, felony surcharges, drug testing, and sex offender registration.

While some states charge inmates for medical fees and booking, others charge fees equivalent to room and board often referred to as “pay to stay” in an effort to transfer correctional costs to inmates.

Researchers found that small fees can quickly avalanche into thousands of dollars, burying ex-offenders and their families in more debt than they can ever repay. According to the report, the accumulated debt from an assortment of prison fees topped $50 billion.

Individuals can be charged “for police transport case filing, felony surcharges, electronic monitoring, drug testing, and sex offender registration,” the report said.

“A recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that corrections is currently the third-largest category of spending in most states, behind education and health care,” stated the Brennan Center report. “In fact, somewhat disconcertingly, 11 states spent more of their general funds on corrections than on higher education in 2013.”

Blacks are more than twice as likely to be arrested than Whites. One in three Black males born in 2001 will likely spend some time in prison, compared to 1 out of every 17 males. One in 19 Black women and about one in 111 White women will share that same fate. Sentences for Black men are almost 20 percent longer than sentences for White men convicted of similar crimes.

In the Center for Economic and Policy Research report titled “Ex‐offenders and the Labor Market,” researchers found that although Blacks account for about 13 percent of the United States population, they make up roughly 40 percent of prisoners. Whites accounted for more than 62 percent of prisoners in 1960 and now make up about 33 percent of the prison population. CEPR researchers also estimated that Black ex-offenders have a recidivism rate that is about 9 percent above the average and Whites return to prison at a rate that is about 9 percent below average.

The CEPR report also noted that incarceration can lead to a deterioration of valuable work skills, educational opportunities and social networks and that loss can hurt ex-offenders as they search for jobs, making it even harder for them to repay fees that they racked up while they sat in prison.

“Because a prison record or felony conviction greatly lowers ex-offenders’ prospects in the labor market, we estimate that this large population lowered the total male employment rate that year by 1.5 to 1.7 percentage points,” stated the CEPR report. “In GDP terms, these reductions in employment cost the U.S. economy between $57 and $65 billion in lost output.”

Lawmakers who favor the fees push the need to offset some of the costs associated with incarceration, yet some jurisdictions report that less than 10 percent of the fees are ever paid, and collection agencies, despite their claims, are no better at getting ex-offenders to pay up than the prisons and jails are.

The report also cites a 1994 Chicago Tribune article written by a law clerk for an Eighth Circuit judge that suggested that prisoners should pay rent to correctional facilities even though he doubted that they would be able to afford it.

“The irony is obvious here,” the report said. “While advocating for this bold new idea, the author admits its inherent unworkability.”

What’s also unworkable is the fact that prison practices continue to indirectly discourage inmates from seeking desperately need medical care often for chronic illnesses, because at least 35 states allow correctional facilities to charge inmates for medical care.

Opponents of the “pay to stay” prison fees say that charging inmates for medical treatment can be enough of a deterrent to make them think twice about seeking health care. As inmates cycle in and out prisons and back into their communities, the spread of communicable diseases can intensify affecting everyone that interacts with them including their families, friends and even correctional staff.

The Brennan Center report recommended that government officials reexamine collection practices that place excessive burdens on ex-offenders, set caps on criminal justice debt, and clearly define the parameters for assessing fees in the criminal justice system.

As violent crime falls to thirty-year lows, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are beginning to recognize that the socioeconomic costs of mass incarceration far outweigh its benefits and that those costs not only affect the Black community, but the economic security of the United States.

The report said that the explosion of mass incarceration has created a “staggering price tag” that is ultimately shared by all Americans.

“It is understandable that jails and prisons would look to offset costs for housing these individuals,” the report said. “However, it is unreasonable to require a population whose debt to society is already being paid by the sentences imposed, 80 percent of whom are indigent, to help foot the bill.”

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Oakland Post: Week of November 20 – 26, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 20 – 26, 2024

Published

2 days ago

November 22, 2024

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PRESS ROOM: Clyburn, Pressley, Scanlon, Colleagues Urge Biden to Use Clemency Power to Address Mass Incarceration Before Leaving Office

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Mass incarceration remains a persistent, systemic injustice that erodes the soul of America. Our nation has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with nearly two million people locked in jails and prisons throughout the country.

Published

3 days ago

November 21, 2024

Oakland Post

Read the letter here.

Watch the press conference here.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman James E. Clyburn (SC-06), Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) led 60 of their colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden urging him to use his executive clemency power in the final months of his presidency to reunite families, address longstanding injustices in our legal system, and set our nation on the path toward ending mass incarceration.

The lawmakers hosted a press conference earlier today to discuss the letter. A full video of their press conference is available here and photos are available here.

“Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “The grant of pardons and commutations and the restoration of rights will undoubtedly send a powerful message across the country in support of fundamental fairness and furthering meaningful criminal justice reform.”

Mass incarceration remains a persistent, systemic injustice that erodes the soul of America. Our nation has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with nearly two million people locked in jails and prisons throughout the country. The extreme use of incarceration has resulted in one in two adults having had an incarcerated family member. People of color are disproportionately put behind bars, along with individuals from low-income communities, LGBTQIA+ folks, and those with disabilities. The bloated prison system reflects and emboldens biases that undermine the ideals of our nation and diminish trust in the rule of law. Mass incarceration attacks the most vulnerable Americans, thereby destabilizing families and inflicting intergenerational trauma.

In their letter to President Biden, the lawmakers praised the President’s efforts to create a fair and just criminal legal system by pardoning people convicted of simple marijuana possession and LGBTQ+ former servicemembers and urged the President to use his clemency powers to help broad classes of people and cases, including the elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers. The lawmakers also outlined the fiscal toll of the growing mass incarceration crisis.

“You have the support of millions of people across the country who have felt the harms of mass incarceration: young children longing to hug their grandparents, people who have taken responsibility for their mistakes, and those who simply were never given a fair chance,” the lawmakers wrote. “These are the people seeking help that only you can provide through the use of your presidential clemency power.”

Joining Representatives Clyburn, Pressley, and Scanlon in sending the letter are Representatives Joyce Beatty, Sanford Bishop, Shontel Brown, Cori Bush, André Carson, Troy Carter, Yvette Clarke, Jasmine Crockett, Valerie Foushee, Al Green, Jahana Hayes, Steven Horsford, Jonathan Jackson, Pramila Jayapal, Henry Johnson, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Robin Kelly, Summer Lee, Jennifer McClellan, Gregory Meeks, Delia Ramirez, Jan Schakowsky, Robert Scott, Terri Sewell, Marilyn Strickland, Bennie Thompson, Rashida Tlaib, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

The lawmakers’ letter is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union; Center for Popular Democracy; Last Prisoner Project; Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; Death Penalty Action; The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls; The Faith Leaders of Color Coalition; Second Chance Justice of MCAN; JustLeadershipUSA; FAMM; The Episcopal Church; The Bambi Fund; Free Billie Allen Campaign; People’s Coalition for Safety and Freedom; Prophetic Resistance Boston; and Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

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Tennessee State University Set to Debut the First Division I Hockey Team at An HBCU

THE AFRO — “I am incredibly excited to embark on building this program, supported by God, my family, TSU students, alumni, and all those eagerly awaiting this moment,” said Duanté Abercrombie, the head coach of the Tennessee State Tigers ice hockey team, in a press release courtesy of TSU Athletics. “I firmly believe that one day, TSU will be recognized not only as a powerhouse on the ice but also as a program whose student-athletes leave a profound legacy on the world, enriched by the lessons learned at TSU.”

Published

4 days ago

November 21, 2024

admin

By Mekhi Abbott
Special to the AFRO
mabbott@afro.com

Tennessee State University (TSU) continues to break ground on a historic journey to become the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to field a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I ice hockey team. Alongside some assistance from the National Hockey League (NHL), the NHL Players’ Association and the Nashville Predators, the TSU Tigers have already named their official head coach, unveiled their jersey and received their first official commitment from a student-athlete.

TSU held an official press conference to announce the plan in June 2023. Their first official season as a sanctioned Division I program is planned to commence in 2025-26. On April 18, TSU named Duanté Abercrombie as the head coach of the Tennessee State Tigers ice hockey team.

“I am incredibly excited to embark on building this program, supported by God, my family, TSU students, alumni, and all those eagerly awaiting this moment,” said Abercrombie in a press release courtesy of TSU Athletics. “I firmly believe that one day, TSU will be recognized not only as a powerhouse on the ice but also as a program whose student-athletes leave a profound legacy on the world, enriched by the lessons learned at TSU.”

Abercrombie was raised in Washington, D.C., and was mentored by hockey legend Neal Henderson, the first Black man to be inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. Abercrombie attended Gonzaga College High School and graduated from Hampton University, where he was a track and field athlete prior to retiring due to an injury. After college, Abercrombie briefly played professional hockey in both the New Zealand Ice Hockey League as well as the Federal Hockey League.

After his career as a professional hockey player, Abercrombie moved onto coaching, including stints with his alma mater Gonzaga and Georgetown Preparatory School. In 2022-23, Abercrombie was a member of the coaching staff for NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs organization.

“We are no longer doing club play in 2024-25. We are going right into D1 play for 2025-26,” Nick Guerriero told the AFRO. Guerriero is the assistant athletic director of communications and creative content at Tennessee State.

On Jan. 19, TSU got their first official commitment from an ice hockey recruit, Xavier Abel. Abel played at Drury University and scored 12 goals in 34 games, including three game-winning goals. Abel was recruited by Guerriero.

In July, the Tigers got their second commitment from forward Trey Fechko. In October, Trey’s brother Marcus Fechko also committed to Tennessee State. Since, the Tigers have also signed forward Greye Rampton, goaltender Johnny Hicks, Grady Hoffman and four-star forward Bowden Singleton. Singleton flipped his commitment from North Dakota to Tennessee State. Guerriero said that TSU has a “few” other recruits that they are waiting to announce during their November signing period.

“I think it’s important to invest in these unorthodox sports for Black athletes because it allows Black children to have more opportunities to play sports in general,” said Zion Williams, a 2024 Gettysburg College graduate and former collegiate athlete. “The more opportunities that children have, the better. They won’t feel like they are boxed into one thing or sport.”