You Can't Spell it without D-O-C

You can’t spell “department outsourcing” without DOC. We learned that again this week when memos were posted from the central office advising that on October 1, 2013 facilities will no longer accept money orders for deposits to inmate accounts. All funds sent in after that date will have to be mailed to either “JPay” at a Florida lockbox address or submitted electronically to JPay.

            

Who is JPay? It’s a stock company that’s part of the prison-industrial complex. Companies like JPay perform significant parts of DOC’s prison operation. They receive millions in fees from the states and the families of the incarcerated to handle many of the day to day functions inside prison. States will tell you its more cost effective. That would be a lie.

           

Like much that is wrong with the current state of government, so is DOC’s reliance on private contractors to handle prison-related work. The state prosecutes a person and then sentences a person to time in prison. The state is solely and wholly responsible for the inmate’s care and upkeep. Remember, it takes extraordinary effort to deprive a person of their God-given rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

           

But, in their rush to be tough on crime, politicians lie to the public about the true cost of depriving a man or woman of their freedom. In Virginia, it costs an average of almost $30,000 per year, per inmate. And the process is labor intensive. Add to that the condition of many of the inmates. A significant portion of the inmate population suffers from psychological disease or disorders. Take my bunkmate “Thomas.” “Thomas” suffers from schizophrenia. Every two weeks he gets an injection of Halcion, a very strong anti-psychotic drug to keep the “voices” still. By day twelve (of his fourteen day shot cycle) he begins to hear the voices again. Shot day and he is in full blown psychosis. The shot brings him back.

            

Mornings and evenings Thomas takes pills to assist him with his mental disease. Miss a day and he’s a mess. Thomas isn’t an aberration in here. He is one of perhaps two hundred men who daily take psychotropic meds.

            

Should prison be used to house the mentally ill? That’s another day’s blog. But, DOC has outsourced medical care inside prison. And, the medical care is abysmal. Medications routinely run out. The on-site physician serves as a “gate keeper.” He and he alone, decides who gets to see a specialist. That explains why young men with burst appendixes are returned to the building (only to be rushed later to the hospital); why cardiac distress is misdiagnosed until a massive heart attack occurs; and why cancer is not diagnosed until stage three or four.

            

Companies bid on the medical care. The goal is to see as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible, without sending them to a specialist. Under that arrangement quality medical care is sacrificed. Worse, the state still pays. Medical costs for inmates have grown dramatically since DOC began outsourcing care.

           

Back to the JPay money order issue. Here’s the socio-economic “reality” of prison life: most inmates come from lower socio-economic classes. America is a very class conscious society, contrary to what the politicians tell you. Poor people get poor legal advice; poor legal advice lands you in prison.

            

One of the main determiners of success post release is a support network of family and friends. Many of the incarcerated from poor families receive money: a twenty dollar money order here or there to buy hygiene products and stamps, or food. That little bit of money helps them survive in here. They lack the education – or skills – to earn forty-five cents an hour (top wage inside). They work part-time cleaning jobs at twenty-seven cents an hour, or ten dollars a month. Try buying deodorant, toothpaste, soap, and a razor on ten dollars. Try buying laundry detergent so your clothes don’t stink.

            

JPay charges three dollars on the first $50.00 sent in. There’s another three dollars on each fifty thereafter. For a family with limited financial means, those surcharges for the “privilege” of maintaining connection with your family behind bars, is a hardship. Unfortunately, it’s like that a lot in here. Phone rates are outrageous with huge kickbacks (aka commissions) being paid back to the states.

           

Companies in the prison-industrial complex make huge profits. They use those profits to contribute to political candidate campaigns who then vote in more sweetheart contracts. Meanwhile, the poor bleed more dollars; the taxpayers see more money wasted, money that could be used for better schools and better futures for the children of this state and nation.

            

Diverse groups, from the National Council of Churches and the ACLU to the “Right on Crime” organization and Grover Norquist’s tax reform group have united in their desire to see prison reform become a reality. For too many politicians, however, it’s easier to sign contracts with private contractors to carry out the basic responsibilities the state bears when it convicts and incarcerates a person.

            

Outsourcing prison functions is economic voodoo. It is also morally corrupt. It hides the true cost of sending a man or woman to prison. It increases the likelihood that a released felon will re-offend. Virginia DOC’s outsourced JPay plan is just another in a series of underhanded attempts by the department to sustain that which is unsustainable: $1.2 billion each year.

            

The actual cost of each outsourced contract should be publicly disclosed by DOC. And, no contract should be permitted that results in increased fees for the family and friends of those behind bars trying to stay in touch with inmates. Finally, companies under contract with state government agencies should be prohibited from providing “gifts” to politicians. Somehow I think if all that was implemented you’d see less outsourced contracts and less men and women behind bars.