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| Judge Lets Prisons Charge Inmates Bank Fees |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/10/2005 |
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A judge has ruled that the Florida Department of Corrections can charge a $4 monthly bank fee to Florida's 80,000 prison inmates. The state legislature approved the fee last spring, but two prisoners and a nonprofit organization sued to block the charge, arguing that the fees were lumped into a bill that dealt with other issues, such as private prisons. Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark ruled in Tallahassee on Dec. 21 that the fee provision is "logically connected to the subject of the act because it deals with the authority to operate the Florida prison system." The fee will be imposed on bank accounts kept by prisoners and used to buy toiletries, such as deodorant, or junk food and some clothing, such as tennis shoes, not provided by the state. The Department of Corrections will move ahead with collecting the money within four to six weeks, said spokesman Sterling Ivey. He didn't know whether the fee would be retroactive. Kindred Spirits Charitable Trust, the nonprofit organization that filed the suit, plans to appeal, said Randall Berg Jr., executive director of the Miami-based Florida Justice Institute, which represents the group. Peggy Taylor, a DeLand retiree whose husband is in prison, said she lives on Social Security and can send only a few dollars at time to her husband's state-run bank account. "You have to scrape to pay your bills as it is, and when I send him money, they will take some of it," she told The Daytona Beach News-Journal. |
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