Giving Compass' Take:
- Grace Deng sheds light on how most of the fees collected from incarcerated people in Washington's Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund sit unused.
- What systemic harms are perpetuated when incarcerated people are charged fees for basic necessities and services?
- Learn more about key issues in criminal justice and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on criminal justice in your area.
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Washington is sitting on millions of dollars collected from incarcerated people for phone calls and other fees — money that is kept in the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund and that is supposed to be spent to improve their welfare.
The Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund grew by about $1 million from last July to an estimated $12 million at the end of June, according to budget documents.
Advocates, incarcerated people and their family members say much of the money in the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund is collecting dust. And many believe the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund shouldn’t exist at all, arguing the state should bankroll programs the fund is supposed to support.
“We should really just be providing these services as a state,” said state Sen. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island. Hansen introduced legislation to make phone calls in prison free this year, which would have ended the main source of revenue for the fund.
“The whole structure of charging people in prison for some very basic services is not terribly sensible,” he said.
The state raised $4 million for the fund in the most recent fiscal year, largely from phone call fees. A quarter of the money went to the crime victims compensation program, which helps victims with costs related to crime injuries. The dollars used for incarcerated people during that time went to programs like partial travel reimbursements for families and holiday event décor.
The Department of Corrections said that the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund grew significantly during the pandemic and the agency is drafting plans to spend it down, but family members of people in prison say the state’s failure to spend the dollars effectively and advertise the fund’s existence to incarcerated people is a longstanding problem.
“Nothing really changes or happens with that money,” said Greg Mansfield, vice chair of the Department of Corrections’ statewide advisory family council. “The amount in there just grows and grows and grows.”
Read the full article about the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund by Grace Deng at Yakima Herald-Republic.