Washington is sitting on millions of dollars collected from incarcerated people for phone calls and other fees – money that is supposed to be spent to improve prisoner welfare.
The Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund grew by about $1 million from last July to an estimated $12 million at the end of June, according to budget documents.
Advocates, prisoners and their family members say much of the money in the fund is collecting dust. And many believe the account shouldn’t exist at all, arguing the state should bankroll programs the fund is supposed to support.
“We should really just be providing these services as a state,” said state Sen. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island. Hansen introduced legislation to make phone calls in prison free this year, which would have ended the main source of revenue for the fund.
“The whole structure of charging people in prison for some very basic services is not terribly sensible,” he said.
The state raised $4 million for the fund in the most recent fiscal year, largely from phone call fees. A quarter of the money went to the crime victims compensation program, which helps victims with costs related to crime injuries. The dollars used for prisoners during that time went to programs like partial travel reimbursements for families and holiday event decor.
The Department of Corrections said that the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund grew significantly during the pandemic and the agency is drafting plans to spend it down, but family members of prisoners say the state’s failure to spend the dollars effectively and advertise the fund’s existence to incarcerated people is a longstanding problem.
“Nothing really changes or happens with that money,” said Greg Mansfield, vice chair of the Department of Corrections’ statewide advisory family council. “The amount in there just grows and grows and grows.”
Welfare and betterment funds
Prisoner welfare funds like the Incarcerated Individual Benefit Fund exist across the country, said Wanda Bertram, a policy expert at Prison Policy Initiative, which has researched the issue.
“In jails, what tends to happen is the jail will use welfare fund money for things they shouldn’t be using it for, including uses that are illegal,” Bertram said. “Prisons are more likely to be sitting on the money and not doing anything with it.”
“There is simply so much money coming in from the telecom and commissary contracts that prisons have with their providers,” Bertram added. “Prison administrators may not even be aware of how much money is in these funds.”
Prison Policy Initiative research suggests that nationwide, welfare funds are often used on basic essentials and staffing. Part of the reason Washington’s fund has grown so much, said the Department of Corrections, was because the Legislature began using other money to cover 28 staff positions that were previously paid out of the betterment fund.
In Washington, the law governing the betterment fund says that it must only be used on capital or operating costs for privileges, not prison essentials. The Department of Corrections’ policy limits that further, preventing funds from being used on things like books for the law library, furniture for the visitor area and “premium movie channels” like Showtime.
“It’s an excellent example of how DOC will interpret legislation very narrowly,” said Heather Kelly, the League of Women Voters’ criminal justice chair. “DOC will find a way to draft a policy that has the stingiest possible interpretation.”
This year, the agency approved proposals for arts programs, recreation and “wellness activities.” The department said it is also considering proposals for “therapeutic gardens and beautification projects” as well as music programs.
Ralph Dunuan, who’s incarcerated at Washington Corrections Center, wants to see the department spend the betterment fund on community-oriented and prisoner-led rehabilitation groups, like conflict resolution workshops.
The agency’s policy prohibits spending from the fund on cultural programs or groups that don’t involve “the majority of the population” unless it is an “approved family-centered” program or event.
“If we are talking about bettering quality of life within facilities then we should be able to tap into these funds to support programming,” Dunuan said.
No clear way to request funds
In Washington, Department of Corrections staff and two family members who represent the statewide family council prepare a proposed funding plan annually. That plan is presented to the agency’s secretary, who either approves the plan or requests additional information.
However, there is “no formal written process for requesting funds outside of this process,” a Department of Corrections spokesperson, Chris Wright, said, although the agency “does collect funding requests.”
That informal process is confusing for a lot of people, including Mansfield.
“There’s not really a way to go to a betterment fund office and say ‘I think the facility needs to spend money on this,’” Mansfield said.
Kristel Monte, one of the two family members who sit on the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund advisory board, said that even she struggles to get the Department of Corrections to consider her betterment fund requests.
“We don’t really have that much say,” Monte said about her advisory position.
Monte said the Department of Corrections encourages family members to make requests on the facility level, rather than to the agency’s headquarters, but the facility administrators at Washington Corrections Center, where her husband is incarcerated, often shut her down. It’s a sentiment shared by family members at other prisons, too.
“We went to visiting one time…and I was like, ‘Where’s the colored pencils? There’s no paper for coloring on for their kids,’” Monte said.
“I requested it and it went into a black hole. This has been months now,” she said. “When I complained about it, [Washington Corrections Center staff] said ‘Oh, you just need to request it.’ There’s no follow through.”
Mansfield said a lot of the programs offered through the betterment fund are helpful, but the Department of Corrections fails to promote them. He pointed to the travel reimbursement program, which provides up to $50 twice a month for travel or lodging. Many families don’t use it because they don’t know it’s available, he said.
“If you have $10 million, you could probably provide up to the cost of a couple nights stay in the hotel,” Mansfield said. “If I give them receipts for $200, there’s absolutely no reason why they couldn’t afford to cover it.”
Should the fund even exist?
Mansfield and Monte said Washington officials often tout the state’s focus on keeping families together and reunification as a form of rehabilitation for prisoners, but it would be easier for families to stay connected if loved ones could use the money they pay into the fund for visits and other purposes.
“If they’re talking about building family bonds and keeping those connections, they should be putting into that versus the families having to pay all these extra fees to build up a $12 million pot that’s not even actually being utilized,” Monte said.
Hansen said if his bill to make prison phone calls free had passed, lawmakers would have likely appropriated additional money for the Department of Corrections to “make up for the lost revenue.”
Lawmakers didn’t pass the bill this year due to how expensive it would be, according to Hansen. The state is studying how other states have made phone calls free.
Monte said the Department of Corrections has renewed interest in spending the existing money. But the agency’s headquarters is failing to communicate with prisons about the request process, Monte said. She said she’s asked the agency to survey the state’s prisoners about the fund and the agency said they will, but she’s not convinced: “They’ve been saying that for years.”
“The main feedback is complaints about ‘nobody knows what they’re doing,” Monte said. “Staff isn’t even educated on what they’re doing. The [incarcerated] guys don’t even know about the funds. I had to tell them about it, and they were like, ‘What, we can spend that? That’s our money?’”
“This is for the betterment of [the prisoners] and they need a voice,” Monte said. “The money’s just building up.”
