Follow the Money
Prison for Profit
Companies Using Prison There’s a Vendor for That
Labor
Vermont State Resources
In This Issue Follow the Money September 2020 Letter from the Executive Director
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Word of the month
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Vermont Resources
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Prison for Profit
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Companies Using Prison Labor
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There’s a Vendor for That
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Letter from the Executive Director Follow the money is one of the truest adages that exist. There’s no way we can continue to talk about incarceration and rehabilitation without talking about…the money. The truth is, for a person to be incarcerated and stay incarcerated, money changes hands. In fact, some people are getting rich. In this issue, we follow the money of incarceration. You get a big picture view in the article about how much it costs to incarcerate an individual. You may be surprised to know that only eight percent of American prisoners are incarcerated in a private prison. You won’t be surprised to know that uniforms, food, transportation, phone calls, visitation, and even mail is managed by services that charge more than what you would pay “on the outside”. This was an eye-opening issue and we are so pleased bring it to you. Sincerely, Porche Proffit
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Masthead and Contributors Editor-in-Chief, Porche Proffit Editor, Ericka Foster
Contributors Contributing Editor, Lakia Goodman Writer, Maggie Allen Writer, Natalie Rodriguez-Steen Nutrition and dietician Isabella Dos Santos Positive Transitioning Inc. is a non–profit organization that provides information and resources for individuals reentering the community after incarceration. In addition to this magazine, Positive Transitioning Inc. offers a 24-hour Resource/Listening Line that services all 50 states. The Resource/Listening line is staffed by life coaches, and provides individuals with the immediate support and resources they may be needed during reentry. Positive Transitioning Inc. also provides individuals life coaches that will assist them in every step of the reentry process: housing, education, employment, vocational training, obtaining government benefits, veteran assistance, medical management, sponsorship, financial stability, family reintegration, and legal assisting. Currently Positive Transitioning Inc. is entirely web–based as we are hoping that this makes it easily accessible for anyone to access from anywhere.
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Word of the Month cap·i·tal·ism an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Vermont Resources The Community Justice Network of Vermont (CJNVT) cjnvt.org/center/ With several locations around the state, including Brattleboro and Burlington these organizations train Circle of Support and Accountability (COSA) volunteers and resources for individuals recently released from incarceration. Mercy Connections mercyconnections.org Serving Chittenden County, this organization focuses on mentoring for women, including women who have recently been released from incarceration. The organization also offers coursework for personal development and small business planning.
National Resources American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) aclu.org/issues/prisoners-rights Prisoners’ rights to read, write, speak, practice their religion, and communicate with the outside world are often curtailed far beyond what is necessary for institutional security. Not only are these activities central to the ability of prisoners to retain their humanity, but they also contribute to the flow of information between prisons and the outside world and thus provide a vital form of oversight of these closed institutions. CareerOneStop careeronestop.org/Site/american-job-center.aspx Located across the country, American Job Centers can help you look for work and offer job search workshops, free computer access, and more. National Alliance on Mental Illness nami.org/ The purpose of NAMI Alabama is to provide support, education, and advocacy for persons with mental illnesses, their families, and others whose lives are affected mental health disorders. National HIRE Network hirenetwork.org The goal of the National H.I.R.E. Network is to increase the number and quality of 5
job opportunities available to people with criminal records by changing public policies, employment practices and public opinion. National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) nrrc.csgjusticecenter.org Funded and administered by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) is the nation’s primary source of information and guidance in reentry. U.S. Veterans Administration va.gov/ABOUT_VA/index.asp Most veterans who are in jail or prison will eventually reenter the community. VA’s HCRV program is designed to promote success and prevent homelessness among Veterans returning home after incarceration. COVID-19 FAQs for the Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) (including the Project-based Voucher Program (PBV)) and Native American Programs hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PIH/documents/COVID19_FAQ_PIH_Final.pdf This is a FAQ that lists resources for individuals in public housing.
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Prison for Profit By Maggie Allen It’s no secret that incarcerating people is a costly venture. According to the Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ), among the states they surveyed, the total state expenditure on prisons was just under $43 billion in 2015. According to the report, “A common measure used by states to understand this cost is the ‘average cost per inmate,’ calculated by taking the total state spending on prisons and dividing it by the average daily prison population...Among the 45 states that provided data (representing 1.29 million of the 1.33 million total people incarcerated in all 50 state prison systems), the total cost per inmate averaged $33,274 and ranged from a low of $14,780 in Alabama to a high of $69,355 in New York. Eight states— Alaska, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont—had a cost per inmate above $50,000.”
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To take that even further, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reckons that the United States spends more than $80 billion each year to keep roughly 2.3 million people behind bars. For perspective, according to CNN, that means more people living behind bars in the United States than living in major American cities such as Phoenix or Philadelphia. A lot of time, effort, and money go into running a prison. Each facility needs to account for adequate space; proper security; administrative and supervisory staff (including salaries, overtime, training, and benefits); food storage and preparation; water, electrical, and other utilities; building maintenance and upkeep; recreational and educational programming; and adequate health care for its charges. And this makes sense; after all, human beings will be living in controlled rooms and cells, monitored 24/7, and kept from leaving, so all basic needs must be accessible. At least, in theory. As we all know by now, costs don’t necessarily reflect the effectiveness of prison systems. The VIJ elaborates that “while state-to-state comparisons of average cost per inmate can be a tempting way for policymakers and the public to make conclusions on whether money is being spent wisely, such comparisons should be done with some caution. First, per-inmate costs do not measure the effectiveness of spending; they merely tally spending itself. Second, states’ per-inmate costs can be reduced by increasing the number of people held in the prison, which can invite unsafe conditions. Third, costs vary across states because of regional differences in wages.” And while a lot of focus has been put on the cost to the federal and state governments, it should be said that the heaviest burden of jail fees is often borne by low-income individuals and their families. According to the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), a prominent American criminal justice public policy think tank, the average income for someone arrested is about $19,000. Many low-income jobs will fire you for missing a day or more of work, let alone committing a crime. Even assuming that a household has more than one source of income, oftentimes, after a myriad of fees and processing costs (civil forfeiture, bail, policing costs, and court costs), the family is subject to all sorts of bills to communicate with, as well as ensure proper care of, their loved one -phone calls, visitation, care packages, money for commissary accounts, extra food, clothing, hygiene items. And because even public prisons have switched over to private vendors (mostly to prevent contraband from being smuggled in with outside gifts), many families have found they’re paying more now for the same goods they used to purchase on their own.
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But one of the most harmful yet lesser-known costs is, hands-down, pay-to-stay fees. The concept originated in the mid 90’s when a Chicago law clerk named Daniel Shacknai wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, suggesting that prisoners should pay rent to solve overcrowding and skyrocketing costs. “Prisoners who have no assets should earn their room and board through mandatory prison work. Alternatively, and less desirably, authorities could attach future earnings and recoup the costs of incarceration over several years following an inmate’s release.”
The debt burden on inmates and their families can keep them weighed down for years
But prisoners aren’t paid much for their work (according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBP), anywhere from 12 cents to 40 cents per hour for jobs serving the prison, and 23 cents to $1.15 per hour in Federal Prison Industries factories), and these wages have only declined since 1994. And even then, money may be deducted to pay for criminal justice fees and fines. This is one of the many reasons that people say that it costs more to be poor. At least 40 states have prisons that charge for room and board, and who is eligible can vary widely. Some states charge jail inmates, prison inmates, or both; some charge all inmates regardless of status, while others only charge those who are actively working. And the duration of billing can be equally devastating. Under Wisconsin law, for example, pay-to-stay can apply to the entire period of time the person is in jail, including pretrial detention. It is then up to the counties whether they want to charge only sentenced inmates or also charge those who are not sentenced. And Wisconsin counties that charge a pay-to-stay fee average $13 a day, about $390 a month, according to Wisconsin Watch. Many Americans could not afford an extra $400 bill every month. The federal government is not ignorant of this either; as recently as October 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 9-0 decision that financial penalties levied by states may NOT be so high as to violate the federal Eighth Amendment constitutional protection against excessive fines. Though the amendment was passed in 1791, high fees (in conjunction with laws against idleness and vagrancy) were often used post-Civil War to effectively re-enslave black people.
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There have even been some cases of “double-dipping:” charging both the state and the prisoner simultaneously for their housing. There are other fees we could discuss that don’t really see the light of day. Work release payments, medical visits, electronic monitoring, and DNA collection, among others. These additional fees exacerbate the struggles of the inmates and their families, because they tend to either get lost in the noise or casually dismissed outright. It’s dehumanizing; people are being extorted and preyed upon, trying to look after their loved ones. Because of the public’s misconceptions about the incarcerated, people confidently assert that it’s okay; it’s just “what they deserve.” The system is broken in more ways than one, and it’s far too tempting to focus intently on the use and allotment of taxpayer money. Knowing the numbers is helpful, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. How we view the poor and incarcerated needs to evolve if we want to have any hope of addressing these problems.
We are pleased to announce that Positive Transitioning has earned the 2020 Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency.
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Companies Hiring Prison Labor by Ericka Foster
On March 9th, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state of New York would be meeting the demand for hand sanitizer by having inmates make it. Ironically, not only were those inmates being paid 16 cents per hour to make the hand sanitizer, it is considered contraband and they are prohibited from having any. In fact, the hand sanitizer is one of many products made by inmates under the Corcraft brand name. According to its website, Corcraft “can only sell to government agencies at the state and local levels, schools and universities, courts, fire departments, police departments and certain not-for-profits.” Products and services include textiles, engraving, and teleservices for the Department of Motor Vehicles. It is common for state correctional facilities to create corporations designated to create and sell goods – including California, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, and Oregon – made my incarcerated individuals. For the most part, those companies sell only to government agencies. The federal On the Unicor website, inmates at the government has a similar business entitled Bedford Hills in a call center for the Department of Motor Vehicles. Unicor. Most of these organizations are supposed to offset the costs of maintaining a prison facility, not necessarily make profits. Between 2009 and 2016, “FPI’s expenses have exceeded revenue as a result of a combination of reasons, including the economic downturn, constrained budgets of many of FPI’s federal agency customers, deactivation of military forces in recent years, and changes to procurement laws and policies," said Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long in an 2016 NBC article. When companies have the opportunity to create profit, the chance for exploitation increases. Unicor has recently become available to private companies, where they brag on their website, “Imagine... All the benefits of domestic outsourcing at offshore prices. It's the best kept secret in outsourcing!”. In an article written by Politifact in June 2020 companies such as Whole Foods, Victoria’s Secret, AT&T, Bank of America, Starbucks, and Wendy’s stated that they do not use prison labor – anymore. Many stated that it is against their company policy to use suppliers that rely on prison labor. However, Wal-Mart contracts with companies that use prison labor. At first glance, it looks like exploitation – people getting paid pennies per hour (if they get paid at all) while companies earn profits. But it is a bit more complicated than that…
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Is it exploitation or job training? Remember when you got your first job? If you’ve had a job for a while, it is easy to forget the value of having a job. Employment instills a sense of responsibility, accountability, and teamwork. "My experience that most incarcerated people want to work," says David C. Fathi, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project. Employees can take a sense of ownership, used their time productively, earned a little change, and possibly made a difference. While most of the jobs in the prison facility help with the upkeep and maintenance (i.e. laundry, cooking, cleaning, maintenance, etc.), the more coveted jobs could end up coming from a private company. "If you dial a call center, there's always a decent chance that you are talking to an incarcerated person," says Mr. Fathi. Call centers are common among the prison jobs, however they aren’t the only ones. California has approximately 200 firefighters that are inmates. They earn $1.45 per hour to protect the lives, homes, and environments of others. As this article is being written, they are fighting fires in California. That’s an honorable role. Jail Inmates Worked for a $16 Billion Company Without Pay. Now They Want Their Wages.
So, what’s fair? It’s not about getting the jobs out of prisons; it is about leveling the playing field. "We think the best remedy is to treat incarcerated workers as we treat other workers,” Fathi explains. “If you treat incarcerated workers, as much as possible like "outside" workers, you reduce the risk of exploitation.” Treating incarcerated employees isn’t just about paying them a reasonable wage, though that is a great start. Additionally, inmates are not protected by the same workplace safety guidelines (OSHA) and unfair working conditions that protect those of us on the outside. And the possibility of retribution for making complaints is real – if those complaints are even taken seriously. Finally, the same companies that take advantage of inmate labor won’t hire felons on the outside. Those same California firefighters that are out saving lives wouldn’t be considered upon release. (Look for an article in 2021 on efforts that are being made to repeal and remove some of those antiquated regulations.) On one hand, it benefits everyone when the prisoners have productive ways to spend their time. So, why not have them create goods and services that can be sold to offset the real costs of incarceration (see our article on the costs of incarceration)? However, the opportunity for exploitation exists since inmates are subject to low or nonexistent wages, nor are they protected by the same worker’s rights as people who are not incarcerated. That opportunity for exploitation increases when companies begin to sell their goods and services for a profit. Most importantly, the job training argument becomes moot when those same inmates are unable to get the jobs that they had while incarcerated upon release.
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There’s a Vendor for That By Ericka Foster
Lots of companies are getting rich in the business of incarceration and law enforcement – that’s what they mean by prison industrial complex. To be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with capitalism – we all like it a lot when we’re the ones getting paid. However, we need to be responsible when profits come the expense of another’s freedom. According to the 2020 Worth Rises Report, more than 4,000 companies benefit – make profit – from incarceration and law enforcement services. In every aspect of an inmate’s existence, safety, rehabilitation, and public good are considered right along with profits. Each inmate is issued clothing, shoes, underwear, and bedding. ATD-American Supply and the Bob Barker Company (no relation to the beloved TV host) are responsible for supplying those items. ATD diversifies its services by supporting other businesses with dormitory style living facilities (i.e. retirement homes, hospitals, etc.). They also use suppliers, so it’s not just these larger companies that are making profits, but also smaller companies serving as their suppliers. It also begs the question, if companies are uplifting mom and pop suppliers while they are profiting off the incarceration of individuals, does that make them all bad, less bad, neutral, or good? We can’t discuss inmate expenses without talking about feeding them. Companies like Aramark and Trinity Services Group (part of Access SecurePak) specialize in feeding large groups. Aramark earned $14 billion in 2018 in prison food contracts. The company supports all aspects of food service including preparation, distribution, and training the inmates who do so. When you visit their website, Aramark boasts of providing cost-effective and nutritious meals for inmates developed by a “team of registered dieticians, chefs, and culinary staff.” (see the screenshot below):
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But all that glitters isn’t gold. A quick Google search will serve up (couldn’t resist the pun) articles on poor nutrition, unclean kitchens, and maggots. As a consumer, you know that processed food and starchy carbs (potatoes, pasta, etc.) are cheapest. If you want to cut costs, you can easily replace expensive produce and meat with processed white bread and pasta. Additionally, what is the incentive to provide healthy, delicious meals when the same companies also offer vending machine and commissary contracts? According to an article last year in the San Francisco Bay View, Kevin Johnson, an inmate in an Indiana prison describes his experiences: Aramark sells fresh, real food in its commissary, while serving processed meat and fillers during meal time – its starvation hustle. Commissaries don’t just carry food; they also carry toiletries and personal items. To manage costs, facilities will often have to ration items like toilet paper, sanitary napkins and tampons, and toothpaste. When the prison issues scant toiletries and offer lackluster food, it drives prisoners to seek small comforts from the commissary. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, commissary costs were $1.6 billion in 2017. While the vendors’ websites and scant online reports want us to believe that pricing in these commissaries are fair – actually serving the needs of the inmates -- anecdotes (word on the street) express that commissary prices are more than they are on the outside. Since vending contracts can vary, that may be true in some cases. However, the winners of these contracts have a monopoly on availability, so companies such as Keefe Group (an affiliate of Access Securepak and ICSolutions) that have secured vending contracts with corrections departments can charge predatory prices to incarcerated people and their loved ones. Keep in mind that if an inmate is receiving a wage for work, it is cents per hour, so they must work hard and save up for that overpriced box of ramen. Reaching out to loved ones helps inmates feel whole…connected. Yet, whether an inmate wants to make a phone call, have visitation, or send a receive mail, there is a vendor for that.
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To send a package to an inmate, the facility requires that packages be shipped through a service. Keefe Group’s Access Securepak, Aramark’s iCare, and Union Supply Direct are three major companies that supply care packages services for inmates. The prices and availability vary per prison system. Family members can purchase a variety of products from tampons, boxers, books, office supplies, and hot meals like hamburgers and pizza. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, telephone calls totaled 1.3 billion in 2017. That was shortly after the FCC capped the cost of prison phone calls at $1.65 per minute for a 15-minute phone call. How do they make their money? State departments of corrections contract with phone companies that generally pay the Department of Corrections a commission (cynically referred to as a kickback) which can cost an average of 42%. In Baldwin County, Alabama, ICSolutions agreed to pay 84.1 percent of profits back to the county. Keep in mind, this isn’t just a burden on incarcerated people, but also on their families who want to offer their loved ones some sort of comfort while on lock down. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the types of companies that earn a profit from the business of incarcerating people. As you go throughout your day, pay attention to the clothes you are wearing, your shoes, your towels, and your sheets. Then, while you’re in the bathroom, pay attention to your toilet paper, soap, toothpaste and tampons. (Inmates don’t receive unlimited amounts of these items.) As you enjoy your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, consider the costs of those items. Inmates don’t have those choices, but they are still end users. They are at the whim of the companies that stand to make profit solely by them being incarcerated. Notice how the same company names keep coming up in this article – Aramark, Keefe Group --keep an eye out for more articles as we learn more about this. The truth is, someone will need to supply these items. And inmates who receive these services need and enjoy them. However, a lot of people make money from the incarceration from others, something we should always take into consideration when decisions are being made.
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Final Thoughts‌ I’ve been wanting to create this issue for a looooong time. And the more I learned, the more I wanted to know. We also found out that billions of dollars are being made in other industries, including bail bonds. So, look for additional articles as we dig deeper into the prison industrial complex.
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