Richmond jail to start charging inmates $1 a day
Richmond's overcrowded city jail will start charging inmates $1 day to be there.
The charge takes effect Wednesday, said Lt. Col. Walter Allmon of the city sheriff's department.
"It's to help pay for the cost of operating the jail," he said.
It costs about $46 per inmate, per day to cover the jail's operating and administrative costs, city budget documents show. The $1-a-day charge could raise more than $500,000 a year toward the $30 million annual cost of running the jail.
Virginia has allowed sheriffs to charge inmates for their stays since 2003, and this year the legislature increased the maximum amount from $1 a day to $5. Chesterfield County has levied the $1 charge for two years.
Allmon said the money would be billed to inmates' accounts, which the jail sets up for them so they can have cash to pay for phone calls and snacks from the canteen. The money comes from what cash they have when they're arrested and from what their families send them.
Allmon said the sheriff's office won't sue inmates if they are indigent and don't have money. But he said any unpaid balance will carry over from one arrest to another, so if an inmate returns and has money in his account at that time, it will go first to pay off the charge.
The Richmond jail routinely houses nearly twice the number of men and women it was designed to hold when it was built four decades ago. Until recently, it was common for dozens of male inmates to sleep on mattresses on the floor of the jail's largest dormitory cells, but new triple-decker bunk beds have eased that problem.
Sheriff C.T. Woody has said hundreds of the 1,500 men and women housed in the jail on any given day shouldn't be there. Some are mentally ill, while others are awaiting trial on petty charges and can't get out because they can't afford even a $30 bond.
Pamunkey Regional Jail, which serves Hanover and Caroline counties and the town of Ashland, charges a fee for people serving weekends-only sentences; the fee generates about $29,000 a year. The after-hours desk deputy at Henrico County Jail-West said inmates there aren't charged.
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or
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Reader Reactions
Sbrown,
as a grown recovering addict of alcohlic parents, i do not see what your statements have to do with this. sure recovery is hard. it involves commitment, making the best choice for the minute, but if you are active in your addiction and you make the choice to get behind the wheel and drive under the influence then you have to serve the time. i have a relative serving his time this very minute. he lives in georgia. he made his choice one night. i just sent 25.00 down so he could call us when he is allowed to.
this dispute is about those who take what is not theirs, those who hurt others without concern, those who live outside of the laws made to protect them. i believe they should pay for the cell, food, and what ever else they are given for their crimes.
and as for the statement, most addicts have mental illness, honey you out speak your self. this is not true. it is a choice made to live addicted or sober. the families do suffer that much is true. it’s complicated but not unbeatable. not unstoppable, and certainly not unobtainable.
Read “Crazy” by Pete Early. It’s about the cycle of mentally ill inmates, mostly in Miami/Dade. It’s really interested and def. an eye opener.
to james and others who have never had a family member who is mentally ill and/or drug addicted. I too was in the same place you were until recently. I have had an eye opening education the past few years on the subject of mental illness and addiction, and the jail experience. I include both of these groups together because so many adicts have mental illness at the root of their addiction. If you have the money - and I am talking 40-70K/month, you can send your addicted family member to a live-in program - there are several that handle dual diagnosis patients with decent results as long as the patient is living in. But first you must convince your family member to go - once they turn 18, you have no control, and getting a committal is very difficult, if not impossible. Unless comitted, the patient can leave at any time - and they do. If you do not have this kind of money, there are day programs, but again you need to patient to go to them and they need to live som!
ewhere, and day programs cost several thousand/month. Mentally ill patients go through a cycle of treatment & medication followed by a period where they stop meds or treatment becasue they feel good and are convinced they no longer need help. This is their illness. Once they stop treatment and meds, the cycle starts again. Families of these people are not the cause, and must struggle every day to meke sure that they are not enabling. The issues are complex and their are no simple answers. Henrico jail has a wonderful drug program for inmates who are willing to work the program. 12 step programs help many too - but they dont address mental illness. Familes are not looking for sympathy - but they are not to blame. Mental Illness is not caused by bad parenting or lack of regular church going or poverty.
$1 a day is it that bad that woody has come to this? we the taxpayers already put out for the richmond city jail now he wants to charge the inmates $1 a day. what’s next? who paid for him to walk around mcv with easter bunny giving out stuff? it’s nice and thoughtful but who paid for that? it’s mighty funny woody want to charge $1 a day now at re election time. i know i wont be voting for him. and incourage people i know not to neither. how woody say on the news he going to charge the people who can pay but not the ones who can’t. if one imate has to pay then you charge all the inmates. then take the money and do the really needed repairs and work that needs to be done. how many people going to die in the jail this summer? it is really messed up nobody in that jail has a job the money comes from family and their loved ones. maybe if woody feed them more than a hot dog and peas then they would not need canteen. thay know what they doing. ripping us off again!!
Putting people in jail is no solution, why not provide affordable housing, free access to education, and good paying jobs?
habitat for humanity??? public schools???? everyone is looking for a good paying job, can not help you there. and where you would suggest we put criminals? why has not one person said, where is the morality? where is the common descincy (sp).
for those spouting about don’t put it on the family and friends? where were you when this person who is in jail was going wrong? why were you not teaching him (or her) right from wrong? please don’t say it’s not that easy. it is, i know it is. and i most likely have no more than you do if not less.
also black or white has nothing to do with this. it’s making money to build the new jail. it has to come from somewhere. why not the criminals who need it so badly.the ones who will not live a crime free life. sure there are special circumstances, there always are. if you do the crime, if you are found guilty, if you are guilty, you are given a fine to pay as well as jail. pay up.
Help those w/ mental concerns.
pls
To James:
I hope you get down on your knees and thank God that you do not have an adult mentally ill “child” who ever commits a crime and ends up in jail.
You can’t convince them not to be a criminal but you still love them and do not give up on them.
its not the inmates fault that the jail is ridiculously overcrowded…all you hear is richmond crying and complaining about how the overcrowded jail is causing so many problems…this jail has been like this for 10-15 years…SO BUILD A BIGGER JAIL!!!OR QUIT LOCKING UP SO MANY FOR PETTY CRIMES.
This is a dumb idea. Just another way to harass poor and mostly black people at the Richmond City Jail. If you want to save money why not release the mentally ill and non-violent drug offenders? At $46 a day, you would only need to release 30 individuals to achieve the same $500,000 savings.
This program dovetails wonderfully with the city’s inmate labor program which pays inmates $10 a day for 8 hours of labor—mowing grass, trimming trees, and clearing brush for the City of Richmond’s Environmental Code Enforcement program.
Has this City no shame or decency when it comes to treating others less fortunate than ourselves? Putting people in jail is no solution, why not provide affordable housing, free access to education, and good paying jobs?
I wonder if the inmates refuse to pay will they be kicked out of jail ?
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