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MA: Senate Budget Amendment for $5 jail fees fails---the fight is not over!

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Here is what happened last night in the Senate and NEXT IMPORTANT STEPS. PLEASE MAKE CALLS AND EMAILS AND THEN FORWARD AND POST WIDELY! Many thanks.... Lois Budget Amendments: 487 the Senate Budget Amendment calling for a $5 a fee for jail and prison stays was defeated. This is a VICTORY since if this Amendment had passed in the Senate, the House-Senate Conference Committee would have most probably agreed to a $5 a day fee. Still, the fight is NOT OVER. Amendment 445, a similar amendment to 487, was withdrawn. Amendment 95 was ADOPTED. (See below for what was passed.) Massachusetts prisoners are already required by statute to pay many fees, including victim witness assessments and court costs, medical care, haircuts, DNA testing, drug testing, and room and board fees for prisoners in work release programs...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).