"The Literal Cost of Solitary Confinement: Why are prisoners forced to pay fines when they are put in isolation?"

The title of this post is the headline of this notable New Republic piece, and here is an excerpt:

The United Nations has determined that solitary confinement may amount to torture: It can destroy the mind, sometimes the spirit.  And yet many jails and prisons around the country have decided that this punishment alone is not harsh enough.  It’s not widely known, but inmates who are determined to have committed a disciplinary infraction are regularly subjected to fines that can range into the hundreds of dollars on top of weeks or months-long solitary sentences.  Both the psychological damage caused by extreme isolation and the financial burden of the jail debt can hang over these people once they’re released, often making re-entry into society nearly impossible.

“When the system is built on punishment, you find every chance you get to damage people more,” said Glenn Martin, who spent six years in New York state prisons and founded the criminal justice reform group JustLeadershipUSA.  “Unfortunately, prisons in America have evolved into places that are devoid of values such as rehabilitation, fairness and human dignity.”

Prison officials in at least six state systems have the authority to impose fines in addition to solitary for a single rule violation.  Wyoming charges up to $50, Georgia up to $100, Oregon as much as to $200.  Fees in the states of New York, Kansas, and South Dakota range between $5 and $20.  (Wyoming, New York State, Georgia, and Kansas dismiss fines once an inmate is released or put them on hold in case the person returns. South Dakota said it doesn’t use solitary confinement, but the ACLU contends that the state’s isolation policies fit the definition.)...

While some of the state disciplinary fees may sound insignificant, small fines can pile up fast.  They pile up on people who often were homeless or unemployed before they were incarcerated and will face the same situations upon release.  The ACLU of Kansas said inmates could easily rack up thousands of dollars of debt just from disciplinary fines....

For many inmates and their families, disciplinary fines accumulate on top of court and attorney fees, court-ordered restitution, and child support.  And around the country, inmates may be obligated to pay for a seemingly infinite number of additional charges. Some of those costs: drug and alcohol abuse treatment; medical, dental, and psychiatric services; vocational training; toilet paper, laundry, and clothing; phone and video calls, food from the jail store, booking fees, drug testing, and fingerprinting.  In some jurisdictions, inmates pay “room and board” for the time they spend in jail awaiting trial.  Ninety percent of local jails collect revenue from incarcerated people. Those inmates pay an average of $1,259 per person per year to local facilities, according to a recent study by the Vera Institute of Justice.

Prisoners can even be charged for trying to kill themselves.  “I’ve seen it multiple times,” said Elisabeth Owen, the managing director of the Prisoners’ Justice League of Colorado.  “Someone hangs themselves and then they get a medical bill for thousands of dollars.”