Washington’s Department of Corrections announced a new plan to use $1.3 million collected from inmates to pay for phone bills and other charges. The money will be used to improve the welfare of inmates, so they have been criticized for sitting on their hands.
But this spending is only a fraction of the $12 million the state has set aside in the Incarcerated Persons Personal Improvement Fund. And inmates’ families are unhappy about how the department plans to spend the money.
Under the department’s plan, the money will go primarily to facility beautification projects, music programs and the “Washington Way” program, which focuses on making prison life similar to life outside.
Families are happy to see money spent on things like toys in their children’s visiting areas, but money spent on beautification can also be used to buy raincoats, training equipment and other basic quality of life improvements for prisoners. It could have been used for things like that, Monte said.
Christel Monte, one of two families of prisoners participating in the agency’s Inmate Personal Improvement Fund recommendations, said, “People[in prison]should go outside and plant roses. “We want it to be for us rather than watching.” board. “It’s kind of a waste.”
Prisoners in Washington state pay millions of dollars in fees to the state. most of the money is not spent
The Department of Corrections said it asked prison administrators to “consult with incarcerated people and family councils to brainstorm ideas” on how to spend the funds. But Monte said the local family council had never discussed brainstorming ideas for the fund, and they told her they didn’t know other families could submit ideas.
The Department of Corrections has not yet announced the fund’s full budget for the current fiscal year, which begins July 1 and ends in June 2025. The $1.3 million covers the first quarter of the fiscal year, which ended in September. According to a public update from the agency on Oct. 25, the first quarter funds have not yet been spent.
Still, Monte said this is the highest amount the Department of Corrections has planned to spend from the fund in recent history. Monte believes the agency may have decided to spend the fund out of concern that Congress would want to spend the money. The agency has not confirmed whether this is the case, but acknowledged that the funds can be used if Congress decides to do so.
The request has been pending for at least two years, Monte said, with many families frustrated that the Department of Corrections did not expand the transportation and lodging reimbursement program.
According to families who attended the Oct. 25 meeting, families can receive reimbursements of up to $50 for two visits per month, but must choose between transportation and lodging for each reimbursement. , the money cannot be used for both. And for families traveling from out of state, refunds don’t mean much.
“It’s nothing,” Monte said. “It probably won’t be a tax on airline tickets or rental cars.”
During the meeting, agency officials said they had not made any decisions about transportation reimbursement, but hoped to reinstate a working group on the proposal.
