Why Jail "Keep Fees" Should Be Eliminated

Extra costs to families of having a loved one in jail are already
high enough, without adding an additional fee.

As part of our local Reentry Council’s Family Support Committee I helped conduct a survey in August involving 86 members of inmate families visiting our local jail. Their two greatest concerns were costs—of pricey  phone calls, medical co-pays and commissary items—and care, including counseling care for addictions and other mental health problems. 

On the cost side, one of the 17 items that over 80% of the respondents considered ‘extremely important’ was the $1 a day keep fee that has to be paid before their son or daughter, husband or wife, can have access to phone services or can buy expensive commissary items, even things like deodorant, or packets of condiments like mayo and ketchup, or other items not provided by our local jail. 

I think most of us would agree that it is unjust to place such a levy on friends or family members who are not guilty of the crime for which their loved ones are awaiting trial, or for which they have been sentenced. Even if there were some merit in a keep fee, it is inmates who should be billed for that as a part of their sentence, along with any fines or court costs for which they alone are responsible to pay when they are released.

Meanwhile, the $70,000 plus raised each year through this arbitrary "rent" represents only 7/100th of 1% of the Jail’s budget of over $10 million, but it may represent 1.5% of the income of the average low wage family member, already missing a bread winner.

Some of us have already discussed this with the sheriff, who has the discretion of whether, or how much, is charged ($1-3 a day is permitted, but not mandated). Faith in Action, a coalition of 25 local congregations, is urging that this fee be eliminated, or become a matter of judicial decision, not something an individual sheriff decides, or as in the case Middle River, a regional board. There it’s $3 a day, or over $1000 a year, which would be 4% of a family’s earnings of $25,000 a year.

To me this is just wrong on so many levels.

Here's a link if you want to send a respectful email to the sheriff expressing your own concern about this: bhutcheson@rockinghamcountyva.gov