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MA: House passes bill allowing jails and prisons to chrarge prisoners up to $5 a day!

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Prisoners could pay up to $5 a day May 1, 2010 The Massachusetts House has adopted a controversial fee for prison inmates that the courts had earlier blocked Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson from imposing at county jails. The courts had ruled that only the Legislature has the authority to impose the fees, so the House voted Thursday and Friday to authorize a charge of up to $5 a day on inmates in prisons and jails. The measure was proposed by state Rep. Betty Poirier, R-North Attleboro, as an amendment to the state budget. It still needs the approval of the Senate and the governor to become law. Poirier said the fee is like charging inmates for room and board. She said it's a way to ease the burden on taxpayers. The fee would be deducted from inmate "canteen accounts," which are used to purchase snacks and personal items...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 01, 2010 (boomark / email).