The Governor's Incentive Program

Last week, Governor McDonnell announced an incentive program for state employees.  Come up with a money saving suggestion and get $2500.  I’m not sure if I’m a state employee.  The prison pays me forty-five cents an hour to educate inmates (where’s the public teachers union on that wage disparity).  Frankly, the Governor can keep his $2500.  Let me out early and you save the taxpayers $25,000 per year.

Here are a couple of “savings” ideas for the Governor to consider.  Frankly, finding wasted money in the DOC bureaucracy is about as tough as spotting the elephant in a ten by ten room.  Here’s a couple of “no brainers” –

·         VCE (Virginia Corrections Enterprises).  The VCE plant here has inmates building office and dormitory furniture.  We’re not talking hand-crafted, solid oak pieces. No these are pre-cut chairs, conference room tables and the like.  Labor costs are practically nil (55 cents to 85 cents per hour; remember, the 13^th Amendment outlawed slavery except as it applies to inmate labor).  These simple chairs are sold to Virginia’s universities for around $1500 a piece.  The same chair could be purchased on the open market for $200 or $300.  Virginia requires its universities to buy from VCE.  VCE makes a huge profit which is then used to prop up the staggering costs of its prison.  The universities, meanwhile, have to spend their stretched dollars on price inflated furniture.  Their cost is then passed on as tuition increases paid by; you guessed it, Virginia taxpayers. It’s a shell game, a Ponzi scheme.  There needs to be transparency in prison funding.

·         Taking the “shell game” concept further, my second proposal is to end the cozy relationships between DOC’s vendors and DOC.  Corrections Cable is a joke.  Why not let prisons negotiate cable deals with local providers.  It would generate work in the local community and save money.  Same with DOC’s sweetheart deal with Jones Express Music (JEM), Global Tel Link and Keefe Commissary.  These companies make enormous profits off inmates and their families.  Over and over we hear Governor McDonnell talk about private enterprise.  Just as President Eisenhower warned Americans in his farewell address of the dangers of the “military-industrial complex”, so to are the dangers of this adulterous relationship between DOC and its vendors.  “History repeats itself” is an often used cliché.  Think Krupp, Bremen Motor Works and the Nazi concentration camp system.  Transparency, Governor, transparency.

·         And finally, why spend $25,000 per year to house nonviolent felons who could be out working, paying taxes and supporting their families?  If the goal of “corrections” is to rehabilitate, then do so and send the rehabilitated inmates back to society.  Arbitrary sentencing doesn’t help rehabilitate convicts.  It only makes them bitter.

So Governor, that’s three good ideas that will save the Commonwealth millions.  I look forward to receiving your check.  Oh, I forgot.  DOC doesn’t allow checks.  You’ll need to run by the 7-11 for a money order!

Contracts 101

Every first year law student learns about contracts. You learn about “offer” and “acceptance” and “consideration”. Unfortunately, everything you learn about contracts gets thrown out the window when a governmental agency is involved.



Inmates become very familiar with DOC’s contracting skills. Just looking at the costs, terms, and limitations makes you think someone at DOC is either getting kickbacks or is a complete moron.


Take the following examples of government contracting impotence:


Corrections Cable. DOC signed a contract with an outfit from Texas called Corrections Cable to provide cable TV service to DOC facilities. First, its not cable. The channels are fed to the prison by satellite. Second, service standards are terrible. Channels go out every day. Third (and most important) it is more expensive than either cable or satellite service through local providers in the facility’s area.


DOC’s contract is a cash cow for Corrections Cable. The cost is high, the channel choice low (16 channels versus 40 on the local providers basic cable package at a lower cost) and the service stinks.


Why would DOC spend more for less? Easy. The money used to pay for cable comes from the “inmate commissary fund” which is the money DOC is paid by Keefe – the commissary provider – for the privilege of exclusively gouging inmates, which leads to:


Keefe Commissary. Keefe is the Goliath of the prison commissary business. Tom Keefe had an idea years ago. He convinced Florida DOC he could provide plastic orange juice containers cheaper than they could buy them. From that grew his billion dollar business.


Inmates do not have a constitutional right to commissary; that is a fact. When inmates complain about the cost of a ramen noodle pack (10 cents at Wal-Mart, 28 cents here, 73 cents at Henrico Jail) it generally falls on deaf ears. Commissary is a necessity, however, because it allows DOC to not meet its obligations to the health and hygiene – and food needs – of the inmate population.


Any inmate who works is required to purchase their own hygiene products (soap, deodorant, detergent, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor). Don’t work, don’t earn good time. Prisons are required to provide hygiene products. They avoid this responsibility by making inmates buy their own from their wages.


That’s OK, except DOC then signs a contract with Keefe giving them an exclusive right to sell all food, clothing (extra t-shirts, boxers, socks – we only are provided three sets), and hygiene products (and TVs and other approved electronics). Keefe, then charges an exorbitantly high price for those items ($1.61 for a 4 oz. bag of tuna; $229 for a 13 inch color TV), gouging inmates. Keefe pays DOC –the local prison – a 15% “commissary fee” which the prison then uses to fund: the inmate law library (inmates have a constitutional right to access legal materials); inmate rec yards (again, inmates have a right to recreation time); cable TV; and – a unique Virginia practice – the chaplain’s office (a non-profit group in Virginia: “Prison Chaplain Assoc.” gets $600,000 a year from the inmate fund to provide Protestant chaplains in the facilities. Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim inmates have no on-site spiritual counselor. Of course, the chaplain here is terrible so no one has spiritual support!).


J.E.M. Jones Express Music of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Mr. Jones is a former CO. He convinced DOC he could provide audio CD’s and cassettes to inmates from his basement. He is a middleman. You want a Rolling Stones CD? Lady Gaga? Look in Mr. Jones’ catalog. Send him twice the amount you would pay ordering the CD from Barnes & Noble (ironically, we can order books from B & N) plus shipping and, if you’re lucky, Mr. Jones sends you your CD in two to three weeks.


Mr. Jones has little, if any inventory. Mr. Jones has tremendous mark up and poor service. “What does Mr. Jones have”, you ask? That’s easy. He has contacts in DOC and that’s enough to give him an exclusive contract.


You may be thinking “So what? It only affects you law breakers”. Wrong. Think: VCE.


Virginia Correction Enterprises. Every prison has a VCE shop that manufactures products sold to other Virginia State Agencies. Inmates are paid “slave wages”. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlawed slavery except involving inmate work (look at the language).


Here, VCE builds furniture – upholstered chairs and tables. Skilled VCE workers are paid between 55 and 75 cents an hour.


State Colleges and agencies are required to buy from VCE. That dorm furniture your son or daughter is using was manufactured here.


Here’s the irony for taxpayers: VCE significantly marks up their prices. One conference room chair costs more than four similar chairs purchased on the open market (I have friends in higher ed who confirm this).


So DOC makes a chair for $50 and sells it to State U for $800. Those costs are passed on to parents as higher tuition and taxpayers as schools demand more funding.


Welcome to DOC contracts.