Here are my thoughts. I pay $6.95 to put $50 in my sons Commissary. Then the State of NJ takes 10% of that and tell me they are paying off my sons court fines. Why Am I paying off my son's fines? I dont get a monthly statement telling me how much he still owes.
it cost me about $50 a month to talk to my son by phone.
Who does this punish ?

These costs dont punish the criminal...they punish the families.
To me....Courts...DOC's ...Parole boards are all just another way to put money in the State coffers.
It's a "protect your job" industry and the families of incarcerated prisons pay for it.

So true, thumperjoe. So true.

I always pay on line, still have to pay the "service fees". This get's real expensive real fast.

Phone calls cost me $57 USD a month. It cost his GF even more. Then his mother and sister pay about the same.
AND
Since NJSDOC has moved to "Ipay" I have to spend another $57 to put $50 in his commissary.
Of which...NJSDOC takes 10% of to pay off his fines. Why am *I* not getting a monthly or quarterly statement telling me how much he still owes!! What happens to that money when his fines are paid off?? Why am *I* paying off *HIS* fines? It's not tax deductible.

The prison system punishes the family.

I've been doing a little bit of research and Missouri DOC has other companies besides JPay to add money to his account, and one of them is only $3.95 up to $300 at a time instead of the 6.95 I'm paying now. I also found out that I can put all of his money on his commissary account and he can buy phone minutes there with out the service charge. It will only save me a small amount of money, but I'll take it.

I agree thumperjoe. I am not well off but I get by because I'm older and our house is paid off so I don't have a mortgage. I see all of these youg wives and mothers just getting by and now having to pay all of these outrageous fees on top of it all. Really makes me angry - who profits from all this? Certainly not the families that are struggling to get by.

The video visitation is awful. I feel bad that I was complaining about being denied a contact visit yesterday. We had gone through all kinds of paperwork and phone calls to change my status so we wouldn't have to visit behind glass. When I arrived yesterday, they had changed me back to "friend". When I told them that we had jumped through all the hoops to have that changed, they told me "oh, well, it's a new quarter; you'll have to start all over again." Arrrgh!! Sometimes I think they go out of their way to frustrate people. Anyway, after reading how it is at other places, I am grateful for our visit, even if it was behind glass. Just wish they wouldn't make everything so hard on families who are trying to make ends meet and to support their loved one as well.

why do my posts on this thread keep disappearing ??

Kitty, my son is in Louisiana! :-( And on top of it, he is in a privately owned prison.

Heartbroken, most of the facilities my son has been held in are privately owned. They are CCA facilities, Correction Corporations of America, but he has not yet been in Louisiana.

There's something I just thought of....a lot of people probably think that we live off the money made from whatever crime was commented ( wich I know isn't true) so there for we have money for all this crap that they put on to us. It's just a thought that I had unfortunately most people don't bother to look at the reality of it that for most of us we work our bums off just to pay bills and look after our loved ones.

Now that my son is in the federal prison system the phone/commissary is so much better. A 15 min. phone call costs about 3.15 on his end. We send him money of course to put on the phone account. I only talk to him about twice a month because I would rather him use the money for other things he needs. And of course we email many times every day. That also costs him money on his end. I think it's .5 a min to read or write an email - thank god he types fast!
We had secures when he was in the county and they are such a rip-off! All you people fighting for you money - don't give up!! Threaten them with your attorney sending them a letter or calling them. My ex did that and they sent him a check.
The whole prison system is a total rip-off and our government goes right along with it! And the saying goes you "can't fight city hall" you better believe it...

I know this is going to sound awful, but I am so looking forward to getting to the point that my son is in a federal prison. I am hoping things will ease up on both of us and we can get into a sort of routine. Maybe things won't be as expensive.

I heard federal prison was so much better. The food, the prisons, etc. Is this true? Not that prison is easy at all.

Heartbroken; I honestly don't know for sure, but I do know that my nephew is in a state facility, his mom has to send him about $100 a month to keep him in phone and commissary so he can buy food. He has to do his own laundry, he does it in the sink in his cell. Every time they move him to a new facility (every time he gets in trouble) Mom has to buy him a new TV for his new cell. My son was in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) here in New York State for about a week and if you wanted to watch TV you had to buy the headphones at $60 a pair. The ICE facility is pretty much people awaiting deportation, so it's run by homeland security.
I think it pretty depends on the facility itself. The worst one he has been in so far is the one he is in now, it is a county facility. He told me he prefers CI NE in Ohio, the food was much better, commissary was much cheaper. That one is a CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) facility. He has been in (so far) I think ICE is state, 3 country, 2 federal (both CCA) facilities. My sister in law has all these horror stories about the state facilities, but I have heard that if you have to be in prison, federal is the place to be. I am hoping against hope that federal will prove to be easier.

Kitty, I hope so too.