Most states force incarcerated people to by essentials like toothpaste no matter how poor they are
the benchmark for prisons to grant inmates assistance to obtain necessities for livelihood is extremely narrow and limiting, excluding a significant amount of inmates who need aid, new study from PPI
We go to the Prison Policy Initiative for this week's study, “For the poorest people in prison, it’s a struggle to access even basic necessities” by Tiana Herring.
“Most states have very narrow definitions of who qualifies as ‘indigent’”
Every department of corrections that has an indigent policy requires people to have very little money before they can qualify
The range for qualification was found to be as low as $0
What this means in practice is that people with $1 to their name would not be considered indigent
The range for qualification was found to be as high as $25
Over half of states that Prison Policy Initiative surveyed have their limits set between $0 and $10
Most states require people to keep these low balances for at least a month before qualifying.
“If someone does get money added to their account that exceeds the indigence limit, they lose their indigence status and have to wait before they can be considered indigent again.”
Most common wait time is 30 days
Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Utah all require people to wait even longer, from 45 to 90 days.
“These arbitrary limits on the amount of money people can have means that people can lose their “indigence” status—and therefore their access to necessary supplies—just because they received a small deposit from a family member or for working a prison job.”
Under these strict limitations, it follows that free basic supplies are provided only to the poorest people even when it would be beneficial for people who fall out of scope of the ‘indigent’ definition
18 states require indigent people to pay the department of corrections back for at least some of the services they receive while deemed indigent
Read the whole article here.
Resources: State policy changes. News. Bureau of Prisons updates. State court changes. Prison holistic self care and protection. Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook.
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