Fees hike angers prisoners

Technorati Tags: Justice, Maine

By BETTY ADAMS
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- One week, Cajun Shrimp Ramen Noodle soup cost 55 cents through the commissary at the Kennebec County jail. The next week, it cost 90 cents.

Atomic Fire Balls went from 70 cents to 90 cents.

Almost every one of the 132 items on the commissary list went up at least a few cents this past week as a private vendor took over the operation at the Augusta jail, which typically houses 180 inmates.

The price hikes came in conjunction with a new system -- with a fee -- that enables people to send money to inmate's accounts.

The inmates are unhappy about the changes. One of them labeled the higher prices "highway robbery."

Officials say the new system is saving taxpayers money. Rather than the county paying the salary of a commissary officer, the inmates are footing the bill through the higher prices charged by the private vendor now overseeing the contract.

Cory Watts, 39, an inmate working as a trusty in the kitchen, said prisoners learned of the new system when they got back their orders and found requested items were missing or their was less change than expected.

"Everybody who got canteen was short items and money," he said earlier this week. "We were told by the corrections officers these are the new prices. A few people did grievances."

Watts, who is originally from New Hampshire and is serving a seven-month sentence for violating probation in Kennebec County, has spent time behind bars in other states, including Massachusetts.

"It's expensive here," Watts said as he sat in the jail library, the same room that is used for video arraignment. "I thought it was because it was Maine."

He went down a commissary bubble sheet -- filled out by each inmate on Sunday night and then processed on Monday -- and compared prices. "In the last four years I've been incarcerated, I've seen a lot of different commissary slips," he said.

Canned fish -- $1.70 under the old list and 20 cents more on the new list -- is $1 elsewhere. A three-pack of decaffeinated coffee -- $3.85 on the new list -- is $2.45 in another states, Watts said.

Watts orders four soups a week, and likes to mix in some fish.

In a letter to the Kennebec Journal, Larry Simms, an inmate, complained "the new canteen system imposed is highway robbery. We are being robbed blind."

He cited the 62 percent increase in soup prices. "We are U.S. citizens," Simms wrote. "Also, we are paying our debts to society. We don't need to be taxed like this."

Some inmates order 20 to 30 soups a week, and Sheriff Randall Liberty said they're one of the chief bartering items in the jail.

Watts was worried, too, about what he could buy for the upcoming week. His commissary account balance was less than $5.

He had expected an additional $50 from his fiance in North Adams, Mass.

She told him she sent it through www.jpay.com, the new method for sending money to inmates in the county jail, but he had yet to see it. A balance sheet printed for him early in the week showed no recent deposits.

Liberty, who sat through the interview with Watts, acknowledged that inmates are upset with change.

The Jpay system allows people to send commissary money to inmates overnight by Internet, by phone, by ACE Cash Express Stores (available at most Wal-Marts) or by a kiosk (soon to be set up in the jail lobby). However, there's a fee for each deposit, ranging from $3 to $11.95, depending on method and amount.

Watts objects both to the method and to the fees.

"Some families don't have computers," he said. "Some people don't have credit cards, and some people may not live near a Wal-Mart."

The fees can swallow up much of the money. It can cost $8.95 to send an inmate $10 via a cash express store.

"We shouldn't be charged to receive our own money on top of the mark-up (on commissary goods)," wrote another inmate in a letter read by Watts.

Liberty maintains the new system is fair and a better deal for county residents who support the jail through property taxes.

"Rather than the taxpayers paying for (commissary staff) through salaries, the inmates pay the cost of managing the commissary system," Liberty said.

Liberty said inmates receive three hot meals a day, and corrections officers eat the same food. Liberty said he has a meal there each day, which allows him to monitor quality.

Capt. Richard Wurpel, jail administrator, said the county receives a fee from the vendor, Keefe Commissary Network of Edison, N.J.

The commissary operation goes out to bid, and contracts are approved by the county commissioners. Under the current contract, the fee is 10 percent of the sales.

"We had a higher percentage (22 percent) before we vended this out completely," Wurpel said.

Previously, county corrections officers staffed the commissary and ordered the products from Keefe.

Now, the county's former commissary officer works for Keefe and manages the ordering and the inmates' money from a small office near the jail's kitchen.

"They do it all now," said Robert Devlin, county administrator. "Before, we had employees doing this and we've gotten out of the business. The percentage is a little smaller because we're not staffing it any more."

Devlin said Department of Corrections regulations govern the cost of commissary items.

"We are tied to what the normal price of things is locally under DOC regulations," he said. "Prices are consistent with what you would see in local stores."

This was found at The Morning Sentinel.