It's All About the "Benjamins"

Any young guy can tell you “Benjamins” (slang for money) make the world go round. DOC spends annually over $1 billion. And yet, as sentences have increased and parole abolished, the number of inmates and cost to house those inmates continues to increase.



In a newsletter release put out this week, DOC’s Director admitted DOC has lost 2400 beds due to prison closings. Additionally, there are currently 3500 DOC inmates being housed in regional jails. Director Johnson then admitted more cuts are likely in the next budget. The Director stated, “DOC would prefer to close facilities than cut programs.”


Most inmates believe prisons flourish and sentences are so long because “the people in power make money off inmates”. Conspiracy theories run rampant in the prison about money made by prisons. And conspiracy theories lead to anger, distrust, and disrespect for the justice system.


“They did away with parole ‘cause the Federal government pays ‘em $100 a day.”


“They make millions off us . . .”


Try and explain to these guys that DOC actually bleeds the state budget and they look at you like you’re crazy.


“If it costs so much, why they lock us up for so long?”


Good question. Locking up a drug user doesn’t help him overcome his addiction. Locking up the mentally ill doesn’t treat their mental illness. Locking up white collar criminals doesn’t help their victims get repaid.


Those are just a few examples. Try these as well:


What is the cost to society for all those children growing up with their fathers incarcerated? How many of those kids live below the poverty level, end up using drugs, quitting school, and end up in prison themselves?


Maybe there’s some truth to all the conspiracy theories. The Commonwealth must be making money off corrections because no sane person would quietly sit by while such an obviously flawed system continued to perpetuate itself and fail over and over.


Instead, politicians lie to voters about “getting tough on crime” and they blindly follow. Here’s a basic truth (and the DOC Director agrees with me): sentences are too long for the vast majority of convicted felons. Too many felons locked up for too long overwhelms the system. Programs can’t keep up; inmates get bitter and on release they’re willing to try almost anything to get back what they lost.


Virginia is one of the worst at treating released felons. As USA Today reported on October 3rd, Virginia is one of the 15 states with the largest prison population (ironically Virginia is not one of the 15 most populous states). Indigent defendants are saddled with exorbitant court costs. Virginia is one of only 13 states that assess public defender costs back to the indigent defendant. Paying off court costs is a term of probation. Inmates in here leave owing thousands. Then, they’re restricted on getting a drivers license. No license, no employment. The conspiracy theorists are starting to look even more credible.


Released felons have to apply to get their voting rights restored. Virginia is one of only three states that doesn’t automatically restore a felon’s rights.


In Virginia your felony conviction affects your creditworthiness, your employability, where you live, who you associate with.


The idea behind prisons in this country was originally quite noble. Sentenced to the “penitentiary” a person would reflect on his wrong doing. Through work and study he would be “corrected”. On release, restored to society.


That’s not what we have today. It’s all about the “Benjamins”. $100 million here for a new prison; $10,000 there in court costs to the defendant that he can’t pay back. The money keeps adding up and the cost, in dollars spent and lives altered, grows and grows. Something’s got to change.