Subject: Addressing the Costs of Incarceration

Dear Sen.

Good Afternoon! I’m a local community advocate working with Social Action Linking Together (SALT), a faith-based social advocacy organization with over 1300 members that pushes for legislative reforms to Virginia’s prison and social system. This year we are partnering with The Humanization Project and other state-level advocacy groups, including Americans for Prosperity Virginia, to modernize Virginia’s prisons and better regulate the costs of incarceration in the Commonwealth.

We are currently seeking bipartisan legislative partners on this issue to help patron or co-sponsor a bill to make Virginia a leader in modern and fair criminal justice policies. Given your strong track record of policy success, we thought that this bill may be something that you would be interested in co-sponsoring during the 2022 General Assembly Session. Please read the facts below and see the attached legislative language to learn more about the often-overlooked costs borne by the families of incarcerated people in Virginia and our policy proposal to address this critical issue. We would love to have you on the team!

VADOC collects commissions on almost every purchase that an incarcerated person makes in prison. This represents a regressive tax on families with a loved one who is incarcerated, a majority of whom are low-income and people of color. The amount of commissions collected per incarcerated person has been increasing rapidly in recent years. These commissions increase the costs of essential items like razors and soap and the cost of communicating with family members (sending emails incurs a $.05 commission for example).

• In FY2021, VADOC took an average of $145.25 in commissions from each incarcerated person in Greensville prison.

• In FY2018, VADOC took an average of $97.21 per incarcerated person.
• The commissions collected grew by 49.4% in three years.

• The number was even higher in Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center, $188.06 per incarcerated person.

• In FY2018 the number was $158.61 per incarcerated person
• In three years, the commissions grew by 18.6%

• Most commissions are collected on goods sold through the commissary.

• In FY2021, VADOC collected over $417,000.00 in commissions on music and other media purchases through Jpay statewide. During the same period, VADOC collected ~$378,000 from Greensville prison alone in commissions on commissary.
• This number indicates that Jpay extracted ~$7 million in FY2021 from the most vulnerable people in society
• Keefe, the company that provides commissary in VADOC facilities, received over $3.5 million in revenue from Greensville alone in 2021 and approximately $30 million across VADOC facilities.
• The companies that operate in VADOC facilities extracted ~$35-37 million from the most vulnerable communities in our commonwealth in the last fiscal year. 
  
  

These costs act as a tax on the most vulnerable families in the Commonwealth and cause genuine financial strain for many. One study has found that 1 in 3 families of incarcerated people has gone into debt to maintain contact with their loved one. Further, contact with families while incarcerated is one of the best indicators of post-release success and lowered recidivism rates. Additionally, children with incarcerated parents often struggle to reach their full potential because of the strain that incarceration puts on their families. This effect increases when children do not have regular contact with their incarcerated parents.

At SALT, we believe that Virginia should live up to its stated values of supporting families and giving our community members a fair chance at success in life and post-incarceration. It is in all our best interests to provide people with fair opportunities for successful reentry into society so that they may become constructive community members.

Our bill addresses these issues by preventing VADOC from collecting commissions on purchases in prisons and preventing price gouging by regulating the costs that private companies can charge for goods in prisons. It also addresses common problems in Virginia’s prisons like lack of access to telephones and other means of communication with the outside world. By addressing these issues, we are helping put hard-earned money back in the pockets of vulnerable families, giving children more opportunities to grow and succeed, and providing incarcerated people with a fair chance to become productive and valued members of our community.

If you are interested in joining us or learning more about this issue, please do not hesitate to reach out and contact me via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at my cell (804)-339-5108.

Best,
Chuck Meire SALT