Banking Fees Follow You Everywhere

[jeffrey]

Banking Fees Follow You Everywhere - Story Here

Florida inmates have begun paying a $4 monthly fee on their prison spending accounts - a fee that is charged even if a prisoner has no money or doesn't want an account.

The fee, which the 56 state prisons began collecting Friday, will generate some $3.5 million annually for the state. Each of the more than 80,000 inmates is required to have an account.

Money gifts from outsiders are deposited, as well as any money earned from prison jobs. Inmates can use the accounts to buy things not provided by the state, such as deodorant, snack food and extra clothing such as tennis shoes and long underwear.

Hannah Floyd, an inmate's wife and leader of the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group, said the fee penalizes families and charities that contribute to the inmate banking accounts.

"The men are upset. Some of these guys are on a shoestring budget, trying to make it with close to nothing. If you have $10 a month to get by on and the state takes four, your whole budget totally collapses," Floyd said Monday in an e-mail...