N.J. lawmakers want inmates to pay jail, monitoring costs

Some New Jersey lawmakers want convicted criminals to pay for their confinement or electronic monitoring.

Two bills would pass the costs of state jails onto inmates and the expense of electronic monitoring devices onto sex offenders required to wear them.

A plan from State Sen. James Beach (D., Camden) would charge state prisoners for the cost of their incarceration, an average of $38,700 per year. Beach said he had gotten the idea from within his district, where the Camden County Correctional Facility assesses a user fee of $5 per day for room and board and $10 per day for use of the infirmary.

The fees generate about $300,000 a year.

"There's a misperception that everyone in jail is poor, and that's just not true," Beach said. "Why should we as taxpayers foot the bill for someone that did something wrong and end up in jail?"

With the cost of incarceration approaching $40,000 per year, Beach said, "I think we should be able to do pretty good."

A bill sponsored by State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R., Morris) and Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) would require those convicted sex offenders who must wear electronic monitoring devices to pay the costs of that equipment, or about $2,900 per year.

"It can be quite an expense for the state, an expense that, in my view, the state shouldn't have to deal with," Pennacchio said at a hearing on the measure.

About 209 sex offenders in New Jersey must be monitored. They are generally those considered the highest threat to safety who can still be released from confinement.

Pennsylvania charges all people who require electronic monitoring, including sex offenders, for the cost, said Leo Dunn, a spokesman for the state's parole board.

At least eight other states make sex offenders pay for monitoring devices, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

There is also long-running movement among some county jails to charge inmates. Pennsylvania does not do it statewide, but several counties do.

"It is popping up across the country," said Rick Neimiller, director of administration and communications for the American Jail Association. "Especially now they're looking at it, with the economy."

Critics, however, said charging inmates would put a burden on both the prisoners and their families, who are often poor.

"It discourages people trying to put their lives back together," said Elizabeth Alexander, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project.

People heading to prison often owe fines, restitution, and child support, and have little income while incarcerated, said Ed Martone, director of public education and policy for the New Jersey Association on Correction.

An "infinitesimal" number of prisoners have book deals, TV movies, or other perks that make them rich, Martone said.

"The cost idea has come up before, and it's usually dropped just as quickly" in New Jersey, Martone said. His group contracts with the state to run halfway houses and works on AIDS and domestic-violence issues.

In New Jersey state prisons, the average prisoner account has $102.37, said Deirdre Fedkenheuer, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

For most inmates, that is most of the money they have after paying fines, court fees, victims' funds, and other charges, she said. In prison they earn, at most, 80 cents an hour, Fedkenheuer said.

"Generally what we're talking about is people who are pretty indigent," she said. "What they earn is next to nothing."

Lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have proposed plans before to charge fees in state prisons, but none became law.

Georgia's legislature considered a similar bill this year.

In both New Jersey bills, exceptions would be allowed for people who couldn't afford the charges, but neither measure spells out where the line would be drawn. The sex-offender bill leaves the decision up to the chair of the parole board; the state prison plan lets the commissioner of corrections decide.

Martone said he was concerned about leaving the decisions up to one person.

The Berks County prison, in Pennsylvania, has been charging inmates for room, board, and more since 1991.

After an initial physical, for example, it costs inmates $5 to see a doctor and $3 to see a nurse, except for chronic illnesses and accidents. Prisoners who want more than one haircut every two months must also pay.

The jail charges first-time inmates $10 per day, and asks them to work out a payment plan when they leave, warden George A. Wagner said. If the payment isn't made, the fees go up for later stints in the facility. But the jail is planning to move toward charging a flat $45 fee when inmates enter. Those who don't pay will have fewer privileges and get only basic supplies, Wagner said.

"The whole concept was to instill financial responsibility in inmates," Wagner said. "It wasn't simply to make money nor to put a financial burden on inmates."

He said those who left but paid back their debts proved less likely to return to jail.