Families of SOs Community Group
WE HAVE MOVED!!! ............................. ............................... ......................... ............................ ............................. .......................... HERE: http://support-for-families.boards.net ............. ................ ............... ................ ............................... .................Please create a profile...
This is for anyone that believes there is not money in corrections.
The backdrop to this article is that the new Oklahoma Department of Corrections director has decided to pull out the majority of the DOC inmates who were serving their DOC time in the county jails. The Oklahoma DOC had previously contracted that some prison inmates could serve their time at different county jails across the state.
The sheriffs are crying that they need the REVENUE that the DOC inmates bring or they might have to close their jails.
Notice the word "revenue."
http://tinyurl.com/o3jrf4e
I have watched this story unfold for some time now. It is obvious that the sheriffs in Oklahoma are making some serious money by keeping Oklahoma Department of Corrections inmates in their county jails.
Here are some highlight quotes from the article-----
""The Oklahoma County jail will not have enough money to sustain operations, unless a change is made in state Corrections Department policy, Sheriff John Whetsel said.""
""Whetsel said the reimbursement Oklahoma County receives to house those offenders is revenue he counts on. Losing that income has forced some tough budget decisions""
REVENUE HE COUNTS ON??????
""It looks like our loss from the DOC will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million (annually),” Whetsel said. “I don’t know how we’re going to make that up.”
Granted, the source of all this money is the taxpayer, but someone is still making money off inmates.
rewdiazepam
The backdrop to this article is that the new Oklahoma Department of Corrections director has decided to pull out the majority of the DOC inmates who were serving their DOC time in the county jails. The Oklahoma DOC had previously contracted that some prison inmates could serve their time at different county jails across the state.
The sheriffs are crying that they need the REVENUE that the DOC inmates bring or they might have to close their jails.
Notice the word "revenue."
http://tinyurl.com/o3jrf4e
I have watched this story unfold for some time now. It is obvious that the sheriffs in Oklahoma are making some serious money by keeping Oklahoma Department of Corrections inmates in their county jails.
Here are some highlight quotes from the article-----
""The Oklahoma County jail will not have enough money to sustain operations, unless a change is made in state Corrections Department policy, Sheriff John Whetsel said.""
""Whetsel said the reimbursement Oklahoma County receives to house those offenders is revenue he counts on. Losing that income has forced some tough budget decisions""
REVENUE HE COUNTS ON??????
""It looks like our loss from the DOC will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million (annually),” Whetsel said. “I don’t know how we’re going to make that up.”
Granted, the source of all this money is the taxpayer, but someone is still making money off inmates.
rewdiazepam
They make money off of inmates... they make money off of the loved ones that send them items and things, due to their exclusive prison retailers. I know here in WI the 'canteen' in most jails was run and owned by a former governor's wife. The two or three companies that you can order and send things to inmates that are 'pre-approved' for the most part are just money making entities considering the prices they charge for cheap ass shit.
The whole incarceration things is a money making scam. But then again we have an apathetic public that treats most problems like animals do... "outta sight, outta mind" and go on with their lives. This is where we as a public need to become accountable for the things that go on around us. Both things that affect us and also about those things that are not affecting us immediately. We could learn some lessons from the Scandinavian countries as they are so much more focused on rehabilitation and reintegration (so that they can actually try to sustain their socialism type government which needs everyone's participation to really work, but has been shown to fail over and over in even small classroom experiments.)
I could go on and on.... heh
http://www.doc.la.gov/pages/reentry-initiatives/education/
Better than a lot of other states.....however the statement "The Department provides in-kind services such as use of facilities, utilities, and building maintenance in lieu of tuition." indicates to me that the full cost with little to any chance of scholarships or grants of any type would fall upon you or other family members....unless he needs his GED or special ed.
If they are omitting library because it is just too much of a PITA for them to keep open enough, then it is time to give them more PITA things to do and let the legislators see how the money they are spending on each inmate is being utilized. Remember with those private prisons there is a contract that someone drew up to detail how everyone was going to get paid. Which means there were provision in that. I would also guess that it is also an open record because it is the state spending money. Might be useful.
I see it being similar to CP, this country is so tough on people looking at CP, when they really, truly, should be going after the people producing the CP not the people looking at it. Or it is similar to the people in jail for having recreational amounts of crack, they are not dealing, they are using. Go after the biggest fish and everything else will fall into place.
My son was in a privately owned facility, in Ohio. They are required to have a library, but apparently they are not required to provide access to it (it too was never opened). It is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. They got a nice racket going. On the other hand, he is currently being housed in a county facility. He told me not to bother putting any money on a commissary account for him while he is there because the prices are way too high. The phone system they use requires a minimum $25.00 and they charge a fee to deposit money, and a fee to use the phone service. The facility itself charges $5.00 to notarize a signature! They refused to supply him with one of the inhalers he is supposed to use because "it is not on their formulary" in other words, it costs too much. They did finally (a month later) give him a substitute inhaler.
They all charge fees for phone accounts, fees for commissary accounts, some use western union, and they charge a fee. Unfortunately, it is usually the families that pay all these fees. The entire system is one big ripoff, and as long as these people are making money, nothing will change. Hell, when he initially got arrested he was housed in an ICE facility here near home. The only way to watch TV or listen to a radio was to purchase a $60 set of headphones (to be purchased from the commissary). My sister in laws son is in a state run facility and every time he has been moved to a new facility, she has had to buy him a new TV for his cell at $100 each time.