Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Criminal Law

: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

MA: Article on the proposed budget amendment to charge prisoners in jail $5 a day.

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Robert Garvey, Hampshire County Sheriff: "I think it's very shallow thinking to think that the people who are here, number one, can afford [the fees]," Garvey told the Advocate. "Most of the people that I encounter in this facility usually come from the very lowest part of our socioeconomic climate." Even more important, he added, the fees would really be a burden on inmates' families. "It's going to be taking away from them, and they are already in a poverty situation," he said. "It's easy for legislators to pass this law who have not been witness to what goes on in these facilities," Garvey added. "Obviously, in this political climate, it's easy to be hard on anyone?'lock them up and throw away the key.' Nobody has told the Legislature that the population we're dealing with doesn't have any money [or] they wouldn't be here...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 25, 2010 (boomark / email).