Advocacy

Incarcerated individuals are already serving time in confinement, separated from their families and loved ones. Not only this, prisoners often provide nearly free labor while incarcerated, therefore generating profits for the state in other ways. Furthermore, mass incarceration is a result of political choices that society has made more broadly. To the extent that the current carceral system exists, it is the whole political community that should take responsibility for the costs of incarceration.

A “place to live” is hardly a way to characterize the horrid conditions that incarcerated individuals have to deal with, including unbearable heat, lack of medical services, and infestations. Further, incarcerated individuals’ finances are forcibly limited, earning minuscule wages and having to put up with inflated prices in commissaries for basic goods like hygienic products, toiletries, food, and phone calls. This makes it virtually impossible for detainees to pay the imposed fees and access services without incurring substantial debt. The imposition of medical co-pays also means people cannot afford the care and treatment they need, worsening health outcomes in jails and prisons.

Furthermore, our concerns should be focused on ensuring that incarcerated individuals safely and successfully reenter society. These fees, which can be collected upon release, pose significant barriers to the reentry process. Thus, without these fees and their associated financial hardships, current and formerly incarcerated individuals can better care for themselves and their families and support their communities.

There is absolutely no evidence that suggests pay-to-stay fees deter crimes or instill a sense of fiscal responsibility in incarcerated individuals. This argument only helps to detract from the core function of the fees, which is to serve a system of extraction for those who are often already struggling for basic standards.

What we do know is that these fees exacerbate precarity during incarceration, as incarcerated individuals often have to forgo food or medical services due to their costs. Not only this, these fees accumulate as debt that poses long-term financial hardship even once individuals are released, and serve as barriers to their successful reentry.

For states like Illinois and Michigan, it’s been reported that the cost of collecting the pay-to-stay fees they impose actually outweighs the fee amounts being collected. For other states, such as Connecticut, the collected amounts only make up tiny fractions of the overall state budget. In order to reduce the operating “costs,” states should be aiming for decarceration and releasing individuals from jails and prisons, rather than charging those very individuals to offset the costs.

While we agree that prison wages should be raised, it shouldn’t serve as an alternative to eliminating the fees. Rather, both things need to happen so that incarcerated individuals can afford basic necessities and access basic services.

It is true that certain states specify conducting “ability to pay determinations” to assess or waive the fees. Yet these processes vary widely across jurisdictions, and there is no evidence that these processes actually effectively discern those who are able to pay. The process perpetuates a system that has a racially disparate impact to begin with, and it is still possible and likely that Pay-to-stay fees deepen financial hardship even for those who are deemed to be ‘able.’

Not only this, an ability to pay determination process could create additional administrative burdens and pain points for impacted families. To equitably assess individuals’ financial means and adjust or waive off pay-to-stay fees creates additional workload for the courts that will only bring about small returns.

Being a parent/guardian is a difficult task as it is. Therefore, the appropriate response as a community is not to provide less support, but to alleviate the hardships of raising young people, especially if they are incarcerated. Children should be allowed to make mistakes in society and not be saddled with the burden of pay-to-stay fees. Instead of imposing fees, we should extend a helping hand that eliminates these fees to ease the difficulties of parenthood.