Maricopa County Jail

Cashing in on Crime: Arizona Prisons Charging to Visit Inmates

Originally billed as a background check fee, the Department of Corrections now says the fee—only on those over 18 years of age, but originally intended for anyone—is an effort to help bridge a $150 million maintenance gap for the agency and that the fee would serve to keep the facilities safer for both inmates and visitors. Money wouldn't actually be spent on administering background checks.

But not everyone loves the idea, and lawsuits have sprung up over what some call a special tax on a specific group of people.

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Prisoner rights groups call the fee “mind-boggling” and say it will only hurt the state, as family contact remains an integral part of rehabilitation. Middle Ground Prison Reform's lawsuit claims the fee represents an unconstitutional tax.

If You Have Relatives on LockUP in Arizona, Visiting Them Will Cost ...

For the Arizona Department of Corrections, crime has finally started to pay.

New legislation allows the department to impose a $25 fee on adults who wish to visit inmates at any of the 15 prison complexes that house state prisoners. The one-time “background check fee” for visitors, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has angered prisoner advocacy groups and family members of inmates, who in many cases already shoulder the expense of traveling long distances to the remote areas where many prisons are located.

David C. Fathi, director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the fee “mind-boggling” and said that while it was ostensibly intended to help the state — the money will be used to repair and maintain the prisons — it could ultimately have a negative effect on public safety.

“We know that one of the best things you can do if you want people to go straight and lead a law-abiding life when they get out of prison is to continue family contact while they’re in prison,” he said. “Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

One woman, whose brother is a prisoner at the Eyman complex in Florence, said that most of her family lives out of state, so the fee is an additional burden on top of the travel costs.

“What will happen is that people will just stop visiting,” said the woman, adding that most prisoners “live for” visits from relatives. Because some friends of the family still do not know of her brother’s incarceration, she asked to be identified only by her first name, Shauna. She was one of several dozen family members of inmates who complained to Middle Ground Prison Reform , a group based in Tempe, about the fee.

I don’t know why I feel that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s paw prints are all over this legislation.  Isn’t forcing those on lockup to work in chain gangs and wear pink underwear enough for him?  Maybe not.

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