Here is a rather lame article (because not very balanced) from the Milford (Mass.) Daily News by Lois Ahrens of the Real Cost of Prisons Project. Apparently a Republican state legislator, Rep. Elizabeth Poirier (of North Attleboro) wants to start requiring prisoners to pay small "rooming" fees, and fees for visits to the doctor or the dentist. The most appalling claim from Poirier here is that, in addition to raising up to $10 million, "This may perhaps lessen the frequency of doctor visits, which will reduce the cost of prisons." Hm--I haven't heard that the problem with health care in prisons is that prisoners are getting too much of it.
We've posted a couple times recently about some people's speculation that budget problems may lead state and local leaders to re-think expensive (and ineffective) policies of mass incarceration. We're skeptical, since people had the same hopes in earlier downturns and the prison boom has just chugged along. This kind of talk shows another direction things could go: balancing state and local budgets partly on the backs of prisoners (while simultaneously cutting social services that may help prevent crime, provide drug treatment, etc.). (The April 2008 issue of Prison Legal News had an article, "Making the 'Bad Guy' Pay: Growing Use of Cost Shifting as an Economic Sanction," about the trend of charging prisoners to offset the high costs of mass incarceration.) And the amount of criminal justice spending in the first draft of the stimulus plan (which we've also reported on) suggests that there might be an element of "penal Keynesianism" going on, too, in response to the larger economic crisis.
Anyhow, here's that article:
Local legislators weigh in on prison fee idea
Read the rest of the article.