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.
