Virginia Prison Justice Network
Newsletter
8/6/18 Issue #12
The Company Store: A Deeper Look at Prison Commissaries
Prison commissaries are an essential but unex- and different types of commissary management.
amined part of prison life. Serving as the core of We found that incarcerated people in these states
the prison retail market, commissaries present spent more on commissary than our previous re- HB 1243 Parole Board
yet another opportunity for prisons to shift the search suggested, and most of that money goes to Parole review, sentencing guidelines
costs of incarceration to incarcerated people and food and hygiene products. We also discovered
Parole Board; parole review; sentencing
their families, often enriching private companies that even in state-operated commissary systems,
guidelines. Requires the Parole Board to
in the process. In some contexts, the financial private commissary contractors are positioned to
base its parole decision for any person
exploitation of incarcerated people is obvious, profit, blurring the line between state and private
eligible and under consideration for and
evidenced by the outrageous prices charged for control.
seeking parole for whom the Virginia
simple services like phone calls and email. When Lastly, commissary prices represent a significant Criminal Sentencing Commission has de-
it comes to prison commissaries, however, the financial burden for people in prison, even when termined, or who otherwise demonstrates,
prices themselves are not the problem so much as they are comparable to those found in the “free that his time served has exceeded the mid-
forcing incarcerated people — and by extension, world.” Yet despite charging seemingly “reason- point of the sentencing guidelines solely
their families — to pay for basic necessities. able” prices, prison retailers are able to remain on relevant post-sentencing information,
Understanding commissary systems can be profitable, which raises serious concerns about including the person’s history, character,
daunting. Prisons are unusual retail settings, new digital products sold at prices far in excess and conduct while in prison.
data are hard to find, and it’s hard to say how of market rates.
commissaries “should” ideally operate. As Introduced by:
Per-person commissary sales for the three
the prison retail landscape expands to include Delegate Mark Sickles
sampled states (Washington DC, Illinois, Mas-
digital services like messaging and games, it P.O. Box 10628
sachusetts) amounted to $947, well over the typ-
becomes even more difficult and more important Franconia, Virginia 22310
ical amount incarcerated people earn working
for policymakers and advocates to evaluate the regular prison jobs in these states ($180 to $660 Patrons:
pricing, offerings, and management of prison per year). The per-person sales were also higher
commissary systems. 1. Delegate Jennifer Boysko
than a previous survey had suggested. In 2016, 730 Elden Street
The current study we estimated that prison and jail commissary Herndon, Virginia 20170
To bring some clarity to this bread-and-butter sales amount to $1.6 billion per year nationwide,
issue for incarcerated people, we analyzed com- based in part on data from a 34-state survey by
2. Delegate Patrick Hope,
missary sales reports from state prison systems the Association of State Correctional Adminis-
P.O. Box 3148
in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington. We trators. But the more recent and more detailed
Arlington, Virginia 22203
chose these states because we were able to easily data presented in this report suggest that com- 3. Delegate Paul Krizek
obtain commissary data, but conveniently, these missary might be an even higher-grossing in- 2201 Whiteoaks Drive
three states also represent a decent cross section dustry than we previously thought. There were Alexandria, Virginia 22306
of prison systems, encompassing a variety of sizes (continued on page 2) 4. Delegate Mark Levine
301 King Street, Alexandria
Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly Reported Virginia 22314
on July 31, 2018 Regarding Parole Eligibility 5. Delegate Kenneth Plum
2073 Cobblestone Lane
By PETER VIETH, A habeas action brought a change. After
Reston, Virginia 20191
Virginia Lawyers Weekly Sheldon sued, the DOC consulted with the
attorney general’s office, and the policy was 6. Delegate Sam Rasoul
Some older Virginia inmates may get a P.O. Box 13842
altered.
break on parole eligibility with a change in Roanoke, Virginia 24037
policy by the Department of Corrections. 7. Delegate Marcus Simon
“Absent a specific date, Dodd’s date of
Previously, when an inmate’s offenses offenses must be construed as the earliest P.O. Box 958
occurred both before and after Jan. 1, date in the indictments, which for all the Falls Church, Virginia 22040
1995 – the date parole was abolished – state offenses is July 1, 1990. Therefore, Dodd is 8. Delegate Roslyn Tyler
officials deemed the inmate ineligible for eligible for parole and he will be notified of 25359 Blue Star Highway
discretionary parole. A Chesterfield County his projected discretionary parole eligibility Jarratt, Virginia 23867
case led to a change, according to Fairfax date as soon as it is computed,” said the
On 02/13/18 the bill was “left in Militia,
attorney Jon Sheldon. DOC’s Donna M. Shiflett in a June 13 af-
Police and Public Safety” committee. This
fidavit. means the bill is dead. Please let the bill
Sheldon said his client, Robert J. Dodd, was
convicted of offenses that took place be- patrons know that this bill needs to be
Dodd is serving a 79-year sentence for abus- reintroduced!
tween 1990 and 1999. The DOC classified ing his adopted son.
him as parole ineligible.
Page 2
(“Company Store” continued from page 2) of this population by looking at Washington, people to pay for essential goods their loved ones
important state differences in commissary sales, where commissaries stock certain items that can’t afford, often racking up exorbitant money
however. Washington’s per-person average was are available only to people who qualify as transfer fees in the process?
dramatically lower than the other two states’. indigent. Based on annual sales of “indigent Conversely, when people in prison buy “nones-
The reason for this difference isn’t entirely clear, toothpaste” and “indigent soap,” it appears sential” digital services, policymakers should
but it seems that personal property policies that a significant portion of people in Wash- compare the costs of those services to free-world
issued by the Department of Corrections are ington’s prisons (between about ten percent prices. Marking up the cost of digital services
at least partially responsible for this significant and one-third) are indigent. for incarcerated people in order to make a quick
disparity. profit - particularly in a time when these services
How “fair” are free-world prices in a prison?
What are people buying? One rather surprising finding is that prices for are near-ubiquitous and generally cheap - is
Annual per-person sales averages only tell part some common items were lower than prices unquestionably exploitative.
of the story. We also wanted to look closely at found at traditional free-world retailers. Oth- In the long term, when incarcerated people can’t
what people were spending their money on. Not er commissary prices were higher. Unlike real afford goods and services vital to their well-be-
surprisingly, food dominates the sales reports; world retail though, a prison commissary is ing, society pays the price. In the short term,
prison and jail cafeterias are notorious for serv- somewhat analogous to an online retailer like however, these costs are falling on families, who
ing small portions of unappealing food. Another Amazon: goods move directly from a ware- are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionate-
leading problem with prison food is inadequate house to the customer, without the expenses ly come from communities of color. If the cost
nutritional content. While the commissary may associated with maintaining a traditional of food and soap is too much for states to bear,
help supplement a lack of calories in the cafeteria retail presence. In addition, commissary oper- they should find ways to reduce the number of
(for a price, of course), it does not compensate ators have a legal monopoly, so they don’t have people in prison, rather than nickel-and-diming
for poor quality. No fresh food is available, and to worry about price competition, and thus do incarcerated people and their families.
most commissary food items are heavily pro- not incur costs associated with special sales or
cessed. Snacks and ready-to-eat food are major discounts. About Commissaries
sellers, which is unsurprising given that many H.I.G. Capital, which owns and operates
The other thing to keep in mind when compar-
people need more food than the prison provides, food-service and commissary operator
ing commissary prices to the free world is that
and the easiest — if not only — alternatives are Trinity Services Group, announced in
people in prison have drastically less money
ramen and candy bars. These data contradict April 2018 that it would pursue an acqui-
to spend. So, while $1.87 may sound like a
the myth that incarcerated people are buying sition of Keefe Group, one of the country’s
fair price to pay for a month’s worth of dental
luxuries;rather, most of the little money they leading for-profit operators of prison
floss, the transaction feels very different from
have is spent on basic necessities. Consider: commissaries. This would put two of the
the perspective of someone in a Massachusetts
If your only bathing option is a shared shower country’s most prominent commissary
prison who earns 14 cents per hour and has to
area, aren’t shower sandals a necessity? Is using operators under one umbrella company,
work over 13 hours to pay off that floss. Or,
more than one roll of toilet paper a week really instantly rendering H.I.G. a major force in
to consider a different scenario: the average
a luxury (especially during periods of intestinal the commissary market.
person in the Illinois prison system spends $80
distress)? Or what if you have a chronic medical
a year on toiletries and hygiene products — an
condition that requires ongoing use of over-the- Prison commissaries, facilities that allow
amount that could easily represent almost half
counter remedies (e.g., antacid tablets, vitamins, inmates to purchase food and hygiene
of their annual wages.
hemorrhoid ointment, antihistamine, or eye products, have seen substantial growth
drops)? All of these items are typically only Privatization Can Take Many Forms in recent years and now earn almost $2
available in the commissary, and only for those When a prison system’s commissary is run by billion in profits annually around the
who can afford to pay. a private company, it raises logical concerns country. A contributing factor to this
about fairness and coercion. In 2016, when one precipitous growth is the outsourcing of
How do incarcerated people afford commissary?
of the largest prison food service/commissary commissary services by numerous prisons
For many people in prison, their meager earn-
companies (Trinity Services Group) merged and detention facilities to outside groups
ings go right back to the prison commissary,
with another dominant commissary company like Trinity Services and Keefe. Another
not unlike the sharecroppers and coal miners
(Keefe Group), we expressed concerns about factor is cuts in numerous states targeting
who were forced to use the “company store.”
the concentration of power and diminished prison budgets for food and sustenance
When their wages are not enough, they must
competition — and quality — that would supplies; data shows a correlation between
rely on family members to transfer money to
result. The passage of time has confirmed the frequency and size of these cuts and an
their accounts — meaning that families are
these fears: by 2017, maggots, dirt, and mold increase in the use of commissary services
effectively forced to subsidize the prison system.
were reported in meals served by Trinity; by inmates.
Others in prison who lack such support systems
these quality problems along with small
simply can’t afford the commissary at all While Keefe Group, a conglomeration of numer-
portions led to multiple prison prote3ts and
the sales data allow us to calculate average ous affiliates such as Keefe Supply Com-
$3.8 million in fines for contract violations in
commissary expenditures per person using the pany, Keefe Commissary Network and
Michigan alone.
total prison population, this number does not ICSolutions, amongst others, was founded
tell the whole story: It flattens the spending gap Conclusion in 1975 and has since grown to become
between prisoners who can “afford” to buy from Although it’s tricky to say how commissaries the nation’s foremost supplier of hygiene,
the commissary versus those who cannot. “should” ideally operate, their sales records technology and food products to prisons,
ought to raise multiple concerns for justice re- with numerous offices nationwide. See an
The poorest people in prison, such as those
form advocates. If people in prison are resort- excerpt from the report from Prison Policy
considered “indigent” by the state, spend little
ing to the commissary to buy essential goods, Initiative.
to nothing at the commissary. This, in turn,
like food and hygiene products, does it really
means that the per capita spending for all others To contact Keefe Group with your thoughts
make sense to charge a day’s prison wages (or
is actually greater than the average numbers re- write to: Keefe Group, Customer Care,
more) for one of these goods? Should states
ported above. We can get a very limited glimpse 10880 Lin Page Pl., St. Louis, MO 63132
knowingly force the families of incarcerated
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Published by the Coalition for Justice
PO Box 299
Blacksburg, VA 24063
