The Arizona legislature has passed legislation that will now allow prisons to charge $25 for people to visit their family and friends in prison. It is a remarkably cruel law since many of these visitors are coming from low income families and have to travel great distances. Yet, legislators are pointing out that they originally wanted to charge babies and children as well but decided to be nice guys.
The fee is being justified as a one-time “background check fee” for visitors, but staffers admit that it is an effort to increase revenue at the expense of these families. Wendy Baldo, chief of staff for the Arizona Senate, confirmed that they “were trying to cut the budget and think of ways that could help get some services for the Department of Corrections.”
Prison visitation has an extremely positive impact on inmates both psychologically and socially. It maintains and strengthens family bonds that will be needed to keep them from recidivism and can weaken the hold of gangs and other bad influences. Now the state is going to tell tell families on assistance that in order to see their loved ones, each adult will have to fork over $25. The article below also details how people have had difficulty paying the fee in advance. Visiting a loved one can be a terribly traumatic experience for a family. Yet, Arizona will now be there to get its cut.
As someone who has worked in prisons for decades, I find this absolutely appalling. From the beginning of correctional systems, the one right that virtually all societies have afforded inmates has been visitation. To now charge for the right to visit is gratuitous and cruel.
Source: NY Times
This is so sad. I to will not purchase anything from Arizona nor travel there.
“I will not visit Arizona, nor knowingly buy anything from any merchant in Arizona. How about you?”
That strategy is equivalent to burning down the hen house if a fox gets inside. Better than refusing to spend money, support the candidates running against the clowns that run the state if you want to enact change.
I have practiced “Inmate law” it is not a vested right to have inmate visits….The question comes down to, who has standing to bring this suit? I think the family has a need to see the family member incarcerated. But does it rise to the level of cruel and unusual punishment?
The family can come so long as they pay the fee…The log ins for inmates are already shared with various LE Agency’s… The person checking in is checked for warrants. They also have cameras outside to check on the folks not entering into the secure facilities. I had a client one time that went to put money in his friends account. He did not have a valid DL, when he drove away he was stopped for driving with a Invalid Ops…
Unless AZ is unlike all other Jails/Prisons they already know who is there…This is known as an Association list….I kid you not…So the question comes down to who has the right to visit…and the state will tell you its not a right…it is a privilege…
FYI, the Prison Magistrate once told me I was not welcome to represent the client that retained me. They had appointed one to represent them…I strenuously objected…as the person had a right to the counsel of their choosing…It was suggested that I had entered the system under false pretenses as they already had an attorney….and that if I represented them as retained it might increase the amount of time the individual is incarcerated….Never mind that I had met with him three times before the hearing…
I just wanna offer that the system/prison I was visiting reminded you of something out of Shaw-shank….
Because I know how the system works….I left and registered my complaint with the DOJ/ BOP and the Attorney Discipline Board…well…both were a waste of time…
ACLU should fight this as Cruel and Unusual Punishment for prisoners.
I will not visit Arizona, nor knowingly buy anything from any merchant in Arizona. How about you?
The Arizona legislature ….in need of correction, or just showing us the preliminary impact of for profit prison systems?
From the NYT article on the ‘background check’ fee:
“Ms. Baldo said the money would not actually pay for background checks but would go into a fund for maintenance and repairs to the prisons.”
They are not even pretending anymore, are they?
Also, no word in the article on whether this fee would apply to an inmate’s visiting attorney, which would seem to open a whole other ‘right to counsel’ can of worms.
I thought the whole point of prison was to both punish and reform people. This only ensures that the GANGS will have even more of a hold over families since they are the only ones who will be able to pay this. So any family that does NOT support the gangs will have to pay for all the expenses on their own, and those who support criminal activity will get unlimited visits! I can think of NO other measure that will ensure the loyalty and recruitment of people to criminal activity than this. INcredible! I guess one criminal gang in the legislature washes the hand of another gang.
I last drove through Arizona in the early 70’s. At the time back in NY TV was full of commercials selling land sites, at cheap rates in new communities. Out of curiosity I drove past a few and found ugly, desert scrub land and large road sign proclaiming this or that new community.
I’ve no doubt those who bought there originally had a great return on their investment, but that to me was luck of the draw. It had to be a large amount of gullible people who bought that dream and their descendants who try to keep it alive by visiting cruelty upon those least able to endure it. Not a good place.
Little by little, the authorities in Amerikkka are clamping down harder, like the Brits did before 1776; the French monarchy did before 1789; the Russian czars did before 1917… When a critical mass of Americans has gotten to the point where they have nothing left to lose, it’s going to explode. Unfortunately, the gun-toters there will probably direct most of their violence laterally, rather than upward. But it’s still going to result in a nasty place to live even for the Corporate Lizard Overlords who push authoritarian ideas like this.
Arizona leads the nation in the race to the bottom.
Cruel and Unusual, anyone?
I suspect it’s going to get much worse in Arizona for every single citizen as this constant growth of inhumanity on the part of those in government eventually turns into a monster that can not be controlled.
No one should be surprised when the state starts, quite literally, to eat its young.
I sued DOJ again for detaining me 3 times 5 months without a criminal charge, a bail hearing, an arraignment, a government prosecutor etc. Now they are claiming in two different documents that in 1995 they notified the public and the government of their intention to use the Joint Automated Booking System to arrest and detain people without a criminal charge. See Federal District of Columbia 11-cv-01032 Document 16, They are also claiming in two different courts that the US Marshals have wide ranging authority and that this allows them to detain people without a criminal charge if a federal judge signs a “civil bench warrant”. The phrase “civil bench warrant” is not in the Code of Federal Regulations and neither is any authority to hold people without federal charges but DOJ is claiming that federal Judge John D. Bates has given the US Marshals broad law enforcement authority allowing them to detain U.S. citizens (for months at a time) without a criminal charge when a private person convinces the judge that it is a good idea.
I found an article about the Nazi’s Prisoner Tracking System and it is very similar to the United States Prisoner Tracking System. DOJ claims that anything that involves the Prisoner Tracking System cannot be the basis for legal action for damages because it involves broad ranging law enforcement authority not defined by statute.
Perhaps they could save a bit more money by getting the prisoners to guard themselves?
Would you get a discount if you’re visiting more than one relative? Or perhaps, out-of-state ‘customers’ of the state get a 1-for-10 voucher, redeemable only for the convict-in-question’s next stretch (not the current one).
This sort of stuff arrives in my in-box and I literally can’t believe my eyes ….
I no longer am surprised by anything that comes out of Arizona. I should be but I am not. This is beyond sick. I too have worked in and around jails and prisons for much of my professional life. I understand all too well the importance of good morale among the prisoners. What too many people fail to understand that the more unhappy and disheartened the inmates are, the higher the risk for violent outbreaks. This affects the safety of both the inmates and correctional staff as well. Anybody remember some of the past prison riots? I have worked on cases where correctional staff has been taken hostage, seriously injured or killed by inmates.
I suggest to anyone contemplating additional punitive measures on inmates and their families to think twice. Prisoners have nothing but time on their hands. They are capable of the most ingenious plots to both escape and seek revenge and the time to implement them. I would hate to see dead or injured prison staff because of this short-sighted legislation.
Thank you for the post. It is a good reminder.
This is a case requiring hostage negotiators. By how much would you have to increase taxes on the Uber-Wealthy to cover this charge? 0.00001%? That’s too much! Ping the peons for the cash.
You have to be F*&)ing Kidding me, right? Since this is a State Action will it even pass the Rational Basis testing….From what I know, people that have “active warrants” generally do not openly avail themselves to the criminal justice system….
There is just something inherently wrong with this concept….
Nothing Arizona does will surprise me. The legislature is bought and paid for and crazy!