Mississippi's criminal justice system unjustly places unnecessary fines after prison sentences on those returning from prison into society. Many Mississippians do not have a fair chance at staying out of prison once they are released from prison, as they are forced to pay too much in fines to the local, state, and federal agencies overseeing their sentences in order to prevent collection agencies from preying on them.
Anna Wolfe, a reporter for the online news site, Mississippi Today, stated in an article by Mississippi Today on January 13, that
"While court-ordered financial burdens grow, the minimum wage hasn’t budged and overall inflation-adjusted wages in Mississippi actually dropped in that same timeframe.
Even many who finish their sentences — often coined their “debt to society” — are saddled with very literal debts that prevent them from the opportunities they need to thrive outside of prison.
Hope Policy Institute reported the case of one man who previously had served prison sentences in Mississippi. “They put pressure on you and try to scare you and say they’ll hold you in violation. But the thing is, I’m on good behavior and I pay my supervision fee of $55 a month for parole… I just found out that I can’t get life insurance because I’m on parole.”
Further, the report stated he told interviewers, "I paid off all my old fines in order to get my driver’s license. Three months after that my license was suspended because I was behind on child support and basically I was behind on child support for being in prison for 2 years.”
Wolfe reported how the prison system of Mississippi forces court-ordered debts of formerly imprisoned citizens to be paid after their other sentences. They indebted released prisons are forced to live out of another prison in Mississippi while working jobs at local employers in order to pay for prison sentences' services, or for other costs the courts in Mississippi assign to ex-prisoners to be owed to the government agencies of Mississippi.
Mississippi's prisoners need to be able to pay the government debts in order to effectively stay out of the criminal justice system and further costing taxpayer dollars to the state of Mississippi. They cannot, however, because their former prisons are trying to keep them in by forcing them to pay too much money!
Their multiple jobs' wages and salaries, which have been declining adjusted for inflation for years, cannot afford to pay financial debts that are forced upon the prisoners in Mississippi by the courts, and they are not able to pay off their debts!
This system is effectively making the state of Mississippi a collections agency! This needs to stop! Mississippi's courts, prison system, and government agencies need to move these costs away from the prisoners and put them back onto the legislature of Mississippi to seek better funding.
The legislature could cut prison costs by terminating costly relationships with private prison companies and prison contractors. Many non-violent releasing prisoners could be under house arrest, if the government would quit forcing impoverished prisoners from paying $300 a month for their own GPS ankle bracelet.
Further, the laws of Mississippi that require banks to not give out money to those with a criminal record need to change! We need to give people who have previously had a criminal record to have a fair chance at getting access to banking or loans in order to be able to be rehabilitated into society!
We need productive citizens who want better for themselves, especially those who were previously convicted, to be able to prevent further financial cost to the state in the form of having to be housed or fed by the state! Allowing them access to workforce training, or to access capital to be able to engage in free enterprise to make money for themselves, should be top priority for saving money for the state!
John Emmerich is a Northsider.
