The state wants to make up a portion of its $1.6 billion deficit, not by raising taxes or cutting services; instead by charging adults $25 a head to visit friends and family members in its overcrowded jails!
The one-time “background check fee” for visitors, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has angered prisoner advocacy groups and family members of inmates, who in many cases already shoulder the expense of traveling long distances to the remote areas where many prisons are located. Prison reform group Middle Ground is suing the state over the law, calling it an unconstitutional “special tax on a single group.”
Source: Inside Buzz
