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May 01, 2010
MA: House passes bill allowing jails and prisons to chrarge prisoners up to $5 a day!
Prisoners could pay up to $5 a day
May 1, 2010
The Massachusetts House has adopted a controversial fee for prison inmates that the courts had earlier blocked Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson from imposing at county jails.
The courts had ruled that only the Legislature has the authority to impose the fees, so the House voted Thursday and Friday to authorize a charge of up to $5 a day on inmates in prisons and jails.
The measure was proposed by state Rep. Betty Poirier, R-North Attleboro, as an amendment to the state budget.
It still needs the approval of the Senate and the governor to become law.
Poirier said the fee is like charging inmates for room and board. She said it's a way to ease the burden on taxpayers.
The fee would be deducted from inmate "canteen accounts," which are used to purchase snacks and personal items.
The fee has become an issue in Hodgson's re-election campaign, with Democratic opponent Rep. John Quinn accusing the sheriff of going a public relations trip to California, where he championed the issue, rather than going to Boston to work with lawmakers to get the measure passed in Massachusetts.
Quinn, D-Dartmouth, is a supporter of the fee and said he helped gain Democratic support for it.
Hodgson said the legislation is a long time in coming and will save lawabiding taxpayers some of the cost of supporting criminals in jail.
"This is a great day for the people of this county and for the people of Massachusetts," he said.
The budget amendment was actually adopted late Thursday, but was reconsidered Friday after some legislators said it should be studied more.
Reconsideration passed by a wide margin and the fee is now part of the House version of the budget.
Hodgson charged inmates the $5 fee from 2002 to 2004 before a suit by inmates got it stopped.
In the two years the fee was intact, Hodgson said he raised $700,000.
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2010/05/01/news/7326736.txt
The new fee was quickly pushed through on a 106-51 vote by House lawmakers late Thursday during their ongoing budget debate.
The House decided to take up the issue again on Friday. After a lengthy debate, lawmakers again voted in favor of the fee by a 93-62 margin.
Posted by lois at May 1, 2010 03:55 PM