Great article! EVERY word of it is true. In Florida Jpay is our only option, I send him $50 per week and it costs me $7.95 to send it. They all need to be regulated, one of those "who is policing the police" situations.

Great read. Iam waiting for this to happen hear.
If I send my love a money order I pay $15.50 just to get the order then another $5 to send it registered post....it's easy for me to drop the money off when I see him.

This was on NPR today. I listened while I was at work. New York doesn't seem to have Jpay, but we do have some other companies preying upon us, particularly at the county level. There is a package service called icare, which is partnered with Aramark, that charges ridiculous amounts of money for processed, packaged foods which are shipped to the inmate, and there is also a very expensive phone service called ICS- inmate calling solutions- which charges several dollars to fund the account, a fee each time you add money to the account, AND several dollars per phone call.
The situation improved a bit when he went from county to state, but it is still a serious hardship for me. Last month, I put money on his commissary account and found out that the prison had taken more than half for a "DNA fee". He already had a previous DNA fee, so I don't know why they took our money. There doesn't seem to be anyone to speak to about this, either. They just tell you that's the fee, and that's that. You're powerless over it.
I'm encouraged to see that articles like this are getting out there, though. My coworkers, listening to the NPR broadcast, all commented on how crooked and shameful the DOC is. At least people are starting to pay attention.

I wasn't able that video yet. I am having issues with pop ups and bad computer reception. Will watch it later.
Oh yes we are victim's in all this, and there seems nothing we can do.
In the county jail, I set up an account on my phone for securustech. Well you get some federal charge of 3.99, a cell phone charge of 3.49 and 3.86 charge for 15 minutes, plus they upped their fee to add money to the account to 10.95!!!
One call would cost 11.00 ! I was frantic. He found out HE could call on a phone card for only 21 cents per minute. You can pay into his commissary account so he can get things and the phone card, and it costs you $2.50 which is cheaper than paying that damn fee to put money on the securus account or the gas it would take to drive it to the jail to pay them.
His jail charges $5 per week for the nurse to hand him his med's. I believe she gets a paycheck from the county for doing her job. Yes they took a DNA fee out. And if he would besentenced to prison then while waiting to be taken there, he would be charged $16 per day to stay at the jail. Like they have a choice. I asked the lady if the room comes with amenities such as a hot tub.

They are raping us financially, knowing we don't have much, but will do anything for our people we love in those awful places.


In the Constitution it states that the prison's have to supply adequate medical care while they are incarcerated. But if they need to see a dr, they get charged for that too. I think it was $5. Then they have to pay for their med's. There was a guy in his prison that was really sick for a long time. Lots of medications. He could not have anyone put money on his account or they would take it all. It was so much, that he would of never gotten canteen, so my guy had them put money for him in his account, then would order what the guy needed. He could of gotten in trouble for doing that, an would of never gotten anything. He was deathly sick and they were charging him a fortune.

BUT after wrote my guy a letter stating facts of what their responsibilities are to the inmates for medical care, mine was treated like a King. He didn't just get to see the prison doctor, they took him to a regular hospital and clinic in that town, and he didn't have to pay a thing.

I knew they read our letters before the guys get them, so I did it on purpose.

We lose them in our lives, we lose their incomes, we live poorly, we struggle and more so because the prison's are ripping us off.

And what can we do about it?

When mine was arrested in MN., he was in a county jail. They gave him 2 uniforms, and 3 pair of underwear. When transported to WI I had to go buy him brand new t shirts, socks and underwear. He had to go several days before I could afford to buy them. I had no money after having to get my car out of impound. So luckily MN let him wear one pair of their underwear to WI. He had to wear that one pair a whole week before I got him more. It is stupid I couldn't just bring his underwear from home. THEN if he went to prison after county jail here, he couldn't use THOSE that I just bought. OH no, again I would have to buy more.

Isn't it something that these people can have grand parties to lure the prison's to use their servic to charge us, using our money to party.

What CAN we do? Anyone figured out that answer?

Now today, we ran out of phone time money, for him to call. I just started working and have had no check for awhile, so no calls til my check gets in the bank tomorrow. No big deal, when I know why he isn't calling, but it still is. If they didn't charge us so much for everything, there wouldn't be a problem.

Every consider that the towns where prisons are have a better economy because of that prison being there. om the people that move into that town to live close to the prison where they work, to the food they buy, the clothes they buy and everything else, to the money we spend at gas stations, hotels, etc when we go visit them? Why wouldn't a town want a prison in their community? Not like there are really many prison breaks ever. Oh yea I forgot those of us that go visit our loved one's MUST BE terrible, scary dangerous people that are invading their town to do bad things while we are there, right?

One of the hotels in the town where his last prison was does give prisoner's family discounts because we fill those hotels up all the time. And the casino in that town profits from us being there too.

People who complain about prison's being so full, should be happy. Without them, and without our people getting in trouble the economy would be worse. BUT consider that many of us go so broke while they are in, we have to get help from the county and state for food, housing, if we can find assistance, and more. We lose jobs, go on unemployment, we suffer while everyone else seems to reap the benefits.
Again I am asking, what is the solution? Does anyone know how we fight these things? I doubt we can, but you would think that with the huge incarceration rate in the US, the highest percentage of inmates in the world, we have strength in numbers.

We beat out every other country in the world for how many people we have incarcerated based on population statistics. There is something wrong about that. If we are such a great country with so many opportunities, then why is that possible? And don't ya think that if the US is so great and smart, they would figure out their way of handling people in trouble is not working. In fact in my classes they said the prison system in America is a colossal failure. But is it? Sure is a profitable money making business. My books for Criminal Justice said that too. It is a MONEY MAKING INDUSTRY they said.

My guy is in Texas. It is 100 dollars to go to a doctor. They take 70% of whatever we put on his books, so we send money to other people too.

The mess hall is FULL of flies and so we try to send him enough to eat from the commissary. They also say the laundry is terrible so they buy bars of soap and wash their whites in the bathroom sinks.

complaining doesnt help. There is a place in this unit where the sewage is dripping onto a bunk where someone sleeps and they have electrical wires in standing water.

ConsCallHome, while I appreciate your courteous presence on our board and in our discussions, I don't appreciate your one-note comments and solicitations.

I agree October!

Hi,

My son was in a bar fight, another person got hurt and my is now incarcerated for making a bad decision. He is being unjustly mistreated by prison staff, had his belongings stolen, purchased new things only to have those stolen as well, is afraid of the other prisoners (they call him names and have even threatened him for not standing up to the first inmate that stole from him). However, I know that I am not the only one concerned about this and that is afraid for their loved one's safety. Many other family members and friends are afraid to complain because they worry that those complaints will result in the inmates being punished. This also involves companies making huge profits from the inmates, their families, and taxpayers: the healthcare facilities that are supposed to be there to help sick inmates (my son gets medication for seizures) and have let inmates die, the phone service company that profits by allowing inmates to call us, the company that allows us to send money to an inmate's account and then provides very overpriced merchandise for the inmates to purchase at the prison canteen, while making huge profits from this, the company that allows us to buy the inmates some additional clothing so they can dress for the seasonal weather conditions. This inhumane treatment needs to stop.

That's why I created a petition to The Florida State House, The Florida State Senate, Governor Rick Scott, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama, which says:

"Stop sending people to prison for things that could be handled by them paying restitution or getting probation, and stop letting prisons make huge profits off tax payers and inmates, while treating inmates inhumanely."

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/prison-reform-1?source=c.fwd&r_by=41911

Thanks!

I'm not sure if this is allowed on this site...but if you can, please sign my petition. The abuse I have taken as a visitor is bad enough but when I hear about the abuse the prisoners have to endure at the hands of the guards I am repulsed and sickened. In fact it has affected my health greatly, but I try to stay strong for my son and myself, because someone has to fight for him and the other inmates. Thanks for the link to the video, I will watch it today. And thanks for your support.

Done.