Monday, September 12, 2011

A fee for prison visits?

How do people come up with these ideas?

The state of Arizona is charging a one-time $25 fee for anyone that wants to visit someone in an Arizona prison. Supposedly the fee is to cover the costs of a background check (they do background checks on people that visit prison inmates?).

Unsurprisingly the fee is being challenged as unconstitutional on the grounds that it is a special tax. Critics have also argued that it has nothing to do with background checks and the money simply goes into the general fund for prison maintenance. A charge supposedly admitted to by a corrections official in an interview with the U.K. Daily Mail.

You would think that someone would realize such a fee would get challenged in the courts wouldn’t you?

Why not go all the way? Why make it a one-time fee? Why not $25 every time you visit or have a renewal fee every year?

Sure, just what you want, isolate prison inmates from their support group to insure they become hardened criminals and gang members.

No comments: