An effort to allow county sheriffs to charge fees to inmates has failed, after fierce opposition from critics who say the policy would end up hurting inmates’ families and make it that much harder for people to re-enter society after their sentences end.
In April, the Massachusetts House passed a budget amendment that would have allowed the state’s 14 sheriffs to charge inmates fees for room and board and other services; the following month, the Senate passed a similar amendment.
Those two amendments then made their way to a House and Senate conference committee charged with reconciling competing bills from the two sides of the Legislature. Last week, that committee opted to include neither the House nor Senate amendment in the final state budget. Instead, it established a commission to study the feasibility of charging fees to inmates.
Critics of the fee proposal argued it could saddle inmates with debt that would make it harder for them to re-enter society after their release. They also pointed out that the fees would come from inmates’ “canteen funds,” which are typically funded by their families—meaning it would be the families, not the inmates, paying the charges. (See “Making Them Pay,” May 27, 2010)
While the fee proposal has the backing of a number of Massachusetts sheriffs, Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe and Hampshire County Sheriff Robert Garvey have both spoken out against the plan.
The commission will include representatives of the Mass. Sheriffs’ Association, the state Office of Public Safety, and prisoners’ legal services. Its final report, with recommendations, will be due to the Legislature by March 1, 2011.
