Incarcerated women make phone calls in Connecticut, the first state to make prison phone calls free. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Washington is sitting on millions of dollars collected from incarcerated people for phone calls and other fees – money that is supposed to be spent to improve prisoner 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, prisoners and their family members say much of the money in the fund is collecting dust. And many believe the account 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.