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| Inmate commissary fund buys wide screen TVs |
| By Mid-Hudson News |
| Published: 01/24/2005 |
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When county jail inmates buy products from the commissary vendor, a portion of that purchase price is returned, by state law, to the county to be spent on items for the good of all inmates. In Orange County, N.Y., the prison commissary fund has grown, in part due to the boarding of inmates from other counties. As a result, the commissary fund has grown from $90,000 to over $200,000. Undersheriff Kenneth Jones told the jail's legislative oversight committee yesterday that as a result, the sheriff's office has stopped charging the $6 fee for haircuts, offered upgrades sneakers and other items for inmates to purchase and recently purchased 14 flat screen televisions at a cost of $3,000 a piece. "I think when people first hear about large screen TVs being available in jails, the first instinct is to suggest that somehow the government is coddling inmates, and I understand that," he said. "One has to keeping mind, this isn't government money, this isn't taxpayer money; this is money that the inmates generate themselves that is going back to projects that the inmates themselves prefer." Despite the $42,000 expenditure for the TVs, the prison commissary fund still remains at about $200,000, said Jones. |
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