The Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund is meant to improve the welfare for people in custody in prisons throughout Washington state. The fund is supported by the money collected from phone calls and other fees from people who are incarcerated. The pot of money has swelled upwards of $12 million. But recent reporting from the Washington State Standard has found that Washington isn’t using most of the money to improve prison conditions. Grace Deng is a state house reporter for the media outlet. They join us to share more.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. When inmates in Washington prisons make phone calls, the money they spend goes into something called the Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund. As the name suggests, the fund is intended to improve the lives of people in custody in state prisons, but recent reporting from Grace Deng at Washington State Standard has found that most of that money is not being spent. Grace Deng joins me now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
Grace Deng: It’s great to be here.
Miller: So the money for this fund comes from incarcerated people. How much do they pay for things like phone calls or texting?
Deng: So the Washington State Department of Corrections charges five cents per minute for phone calls in prison, but that doesn’t include taxes. And then Securus, the company that Washington and many other states contract with to provide prison communications, also charges transaction fees and taxes. So a 15-minute in-state call can average $3.34, according to the Prison Policy Initiatives’ research.
As for texts, you have to buy stamps to text someone – which are bought in bulk. I just checked this morning how much it is to buy stamps and to buy 20 stamps, the subtotal is $5 but then there is a $2 transaction fee, then sales and local taxes. So it’s $8.35. Securus also notes that that $2 transaction fee can go up to $3. And then when you add photos to messages, you have to use more stamps. So just imagine paying the cost of a snail mail envelope every single time you want to text someone, plus transaction fees.
Miller: Is that on your mind? If you’re sending a text to somebody in a Washington State prison?
Deng: Oh my God, yeah. I’m often sending essays to people over text because I don’t want to pay for multiple texts. So it’s like if you get this, call me here; if I don’t respond, call me then. And then it’s kind of like a plan B, plan C. So that I don’t have to send texts back and forth. I’m lucky that my employer reimburses those costs as part of my reporting. But imagine being a family just trying to stay connected with a loved one, already paying your own phone bill and then having those costs to stack up on top.
Miller: Why are these calls so expensive?
Deng: Well, there are only a few phone companies that control the prison phone market so they don’t really have an incentive to lower prices. Phone companies also often pay a commission to the prison or the jail. It’s called kickbacks. And a report from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in 2015 noted that more than a third of the families of incarcerated people nationwide go into debt just to pay for phone calls and visits alone.
Miller: How much has this Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund increased in recent years?
Deng: It’s more than doubled in the past five or six years, according to the Office of Financial Management documents. We’re standing at about $12.3 million right now.
Miller: Why is so much of this money not being spent?
Deng: It’s unclear, but there doesn’t really seem to be a clear way for families of incarcerated folks to request funds and for incarcerated people to request funds. In Washington, the Department of Corrections staff and two family members, who represent this statewide Family Council, prepare a proposed funding plan annually. But there’s no formal written process for requesting funds outside of that process. And that process, also I have spoken to one of the family members who is on that statewide Family Council and she says they really don’t have much of a say. And there also just seems to be this lack of communication between local facilities on what they need and what their incarcerated folks want, and the headquarters of the Department of Corrections.
Miller: What can this money be used for under state law or under Department of Corrections rules?
Deng: Right. Those are two different things. State law says it can be used on capital and operating costs for privileges for prisoners. It’s pretty broad, but the Department of Corrections policy limits that further. So that prevents funds from being used on very specific things like books for the law library, furniture for the visitor area, and even premium movie channels like Showtime, or it’s literally listed in the policy.
Miller: What kinds of programs that could arguably be seen as betterment, as things that would improve the lives or maybe lead to more rehabilitation of adults in custody, which of those are not eligible?
Deng: The law library, for one, that’s legal materials like publications in state and federal case law, court procedures, legal practice manuals if someone wants to be studying up on their case. A lot of incarcerated folks I spoke to, they want this updated. They want newer materials in the law library and it’s just not allowed. The betterment funds aren’t allowed to be used for the law library.
The other thing I heard was like rehabilitative groups, peer led community-based groups focused on things like nonviolence, conflict resolution. I heard about cultural groups like the API group or Black Prisoners Caucus, and the agency won’t allow the funds to be used on those groups because they don’t “involve the majority of the population and aren’t approved family-centered programs and events.”
Miller. Oh, because they’re focused on specific affinity groups or racial groups, and that goes against Department of Corrections rules?
Deng: Right. Or the group that is focused on conflict resolution, not every single prisoner is going to those groups.
Miller: What did you hear more fully from family members about the process of trying to request various uses of these funds?
Deng: I heard multiple family members refer to it as a void, a black hole. They say that the Department of Corrections encourages family members to make requests on the facility level rather than straight to leadership, but the facility administrators often shut them down. I heard people say, oh I just tried to request funds for colored pencils, or for paper for coloring on, or for better TV cables because the connection is terrible. And it just goes into a black hole, you complain about it to staff and then they just say, “oh, you need to request it,” but there doesn’t seem to be any follow through.
Miller: So that was family members. What did you hear specifically from adults in custody about what they would like this money that they are paying – that’s an important point to say again – spent on?
Deng: I can’t speak for every incarcerated person. But what I heard from my sources was mainly the law library, as I said, and those rehabilitative groups, cultural groups. I spoke with Ralph Dunuan who is part of the API group at Washington Correction Center in Shelton. And he was saying, I don’t understand why they won’t use this money on rehabilitative groups that are focused on things like conflict resolution. I mean, that seems to be the definition of bettering myself, right? But again, DOC policy prohibits spending the fund on things that don’t involve the majority of the population.
Miller: What has the agency said it would spend these funds on?
Deng: So about a quarter of the funds every year go to the Crime Victims Fund. And then there’s also projects that they’re proposing … they say they’re working on spending it down. So they say they’re reviewing proposals from facilities like music programs, beautification projects like gardens, arts projects, recreation and other wellness activities. And currently, they’re spending it, but the little amount that is being spent is being spent on things like a travel reimbursement program for families who we’re trying to visit incarcerated folks who live hours away, that kind of thing, as well as holiday events decor and other kinds of materials for family events.
Miller: How common is this situation around the country? Either unused funds – which is the bulk of what we’re talking about here – or I suppose just funds being used for inappropriate purposes?
Deng: Welfare funds like this exist across the country. And according to the Prison Policy Initiative who has researched these funds, they say that in jails, what tends to happen is that jails use welfare money for things that they shouldn’t be using it for, often staff perks like new employee uniforms, body cams, employee appreciation meals. Some jails have used it on gift cards. And then prisons are more likely to be sitting on the money and just not doing much with it, but the funds that they do use will be used for basic essentials and staffing.
Miller: This all ties into a larger question of why it is that inmates have to pay and often pay a lot to make phone calls in the first place. How have other states been dealing with this question in recent years?
Deng: Well, I understand Oregon is considering making phone calls free. A lot of states are also in that boat. Some have made the leap. Connecticut became the first state to eliminate fees in 2021. About four other states have followed since then, including California, as far as I know. About a dozen other states are considering similar legislation. The Biden administration has also taken notice of these exorbitant, expensive phone calls and the FCC is actually capping phone call costs at five cents a minute, which I believe is effective at the start of 2025.
Miller: What happened in Washington when a lawmaker there tried to make calls free?
Deng: The bill stalled when the fiscal note from the Department of Corrections came back because it was just way larger than expected. So instead they’re studying why other states have been able to make phone calls free for less money. Advocates I spoke to, who are familiar with the landscape in other states, said that the reason why other states have been able to make it free for less money is often because states become more aggressive about negotiating lower rates when they’re the ones footing the bill.
Miller: Grace, thanks very much.
Deng: Thank you.
Miller: Grace Deng is a state house reporter for Washington State Standard.
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