At his sentencing last month, drug felon Jimmie Clark asked the court to postpone payment of the $270 mandatory state surcharge assessed for his conviction.
Through assigned counsel David Elkovitch, Clark, 37, of Rochester, argued the postponement would eliminate a hardship. He was asking to make the payment within six months of his release from state prison. The regular payment schedule for the surcharges would take a high proportion of his prison job earnings and would take away from his ability to purchase creature comforts in a Department of Correctional Services' commissary, he said. And his family was too poor to help him financially.
Cayuga County Judge Mark Fandrich granted Clark's request. Clark, who sold cocaine in February in Auburn, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.
Fandrich said it was an exception to his usual practice when he granted Clark's request. But he imagines that the postponement of the surcharge and ensuring more funds are accessible for Clark's commissary purchases may be a means of limiting black market trade in state prisons because Clark will be “less likely to be stealing or extorting from other inmates” to get the items he desires, Fandrich said.
Prisoner advocates welcomed the exception Fandrich made for Clark because of the financial drain they say is created for prisoners and their families.
The decision “does indicate sensitivity to the stress that a family faces when someone goes to prison,” said Alison Coleman, director of Prison Families of New York Inc., a statewide information, advocacy and policy group.
The state Department of Correctional Services is responsible for deducting financial obligations from the money inmates earn from prison jobs. Those obligations range from state surcharges like the one Clark was excepted from to restitution for victims, court filing fees and child support.
When two obligations are being deducted from an inmate's account, a maximum of 40 percent of an inmate's weekly earnings are collected, but 100 percent of outside money sent to the inmate's account is collected toward their payment. Otherwise, around 50 percent of outside money is pulled toward repayment purposes and 20 percent of the inmate's earning are used to repay an obligation.
A large amount of money is collected from inmates by DOCS. The department estimated that inmates earned an average of a $1 a day, and that $37 million was collected from April 1995 to March 2003 from inmates toward the state's general revenue funds, the state's courts or crime victims. A total of $1.3 million was collected by the state in felony conviction surcharges alone in the 2004-05 fiscal year, according to the state Office of Court Administration.
Because some 80 percent of prisoners come from low-income backgrounds, simple things like the postponement of surcharge payments can mean use of a family's money for creature comfort items, items that improve the quality of life within a tough institution, Coleman said.
The use of family money toward surcharges might seem like a cut-and-dried issue, she said, but it is one way to maintain an inmate's connection to home. Those hometown connections are vital in the reduction of criminal reoffending, she said.
State inmates may go to the commissary to purchase personal items like food and personal hygiene products twice a month. They can make a $50 maximum purchase.
But some in the criminal justice field have concerns about postponing payment of state surcharges and fees. One worry is the risk of an inmate never paying them once they are out of the control of DOCS upon their release from prison, Cayuga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Jon Budelmann said.
Budelmann said defendants, not taxpayers who have not been convicted of crimes, should help foot the cost of the criminal justice system.
Even if Clark hadn't been granted a deferment, he would have come out of prison with a significant debt.
With a shorter prison term, a small portion of the surcharges and other fees that rack up into the hundreds are paid off from the amount inmates' earn, said Alan Rosenthal, director of justice strategies for the Syracuse office of the Center for Community Alternatives. His organization puts together alternative sentencing plans for defendants and has a program to help recently released inmates reestablish a life on the outside.
The unpaid surcharges are turned into civil judgments, which adds an additional hurdle for ex-inmates to reenter into lawful society because in addition to the taint of a felony conviction, an employer credit check turns up a history of fines, fees and surcharges that are unpaid, Rosenthal said.
“It's a vicious cycle. In the long run, it ends up being counterproductive,” Rosenthal said. “It doesn't get paid. It doesn't add money to the state budget, but what it does do, they come back home with a bad credit history.”
DOCS officials said it is not uncommon for orders to be made like Fandrich's and they accede to a judicial order when they are made.
“The judge has the discretion to order a delay in the collection of surcharges,” said Linda Foglia, DOCS' assistant public information officer. “When the Department of Correctional Services receives the inmate and the commitment papers order the delay, we follow the order.”
Both Fandrich and Cayuga County Judge Peter Corning said they willingly order the postponement of the payment of state surcharges when sentencing defendants to shock probation, which involve prison terms in Cayuga County Jail, because the county probation department ensures the collection of the money once the shock probation of defendants' sentences are over.
While Corning said he has never ordered the postponement of a surcharge payment for a state prisoner and would not likely do so, he said the high number of state surcharges has the negative consequence of almost “putting courts in the collection agency business.”
While surcharges are a revenue generator for the state, Corning said, the nonpayment of those fees by defendants can lead to further court appearances, adding more to an already clogged system.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
Cayuga County Judge Mark Fandrich granted Clark's request. Clark, who sold cocaine in February in Auburn, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.
Fandrich said it was an exception to his usual practice when he granted Clark's request. But he imagines that the postponement of the surcharge and ensuring more funds are accessible for Clark's commissary purchases may be a means of limiting black market trade in state prisons because Clark will be “less likely to be stealing or extorting from other inmates” to get the items he desires, Fandrich said.
Prisoner advocates welcomed the exception Fandrich made for Clark because of the financial drain they say is created for prisoners and their families.
The decision “does indicate sensitivity to the stress that a family faces when someone goes to prison,” said Alison Coleman, director of Prison Families of New York Inc., a statewide information, advocacy and policy group.
The state Department of Correctional Services is responsible for deducting financial obligations from the money inmates earn from prison jobs. Those obligations range from state surcharges like the one Clark was excepted from to restitution for victims, court filing fees and child support.
When two obligations are being deducted from an inmate's account, a maximum of 40 percent of an inmate's weekly earnings are collected, but 100 percent of outside money sent to the inmate's account is collected toward their payment. Otherwise, around 50 percent of outside money is pulled toward repayment purposes and 20 percent of the inmate's earning are used to repay an obligation.
A large amount of money is collected from inmates by DOCS. The department estimated that inmates earned an average of a $1 a day, and that $37 million was collected from April 1995 to March 2003 from inmates toward the state's general revenue funds, the state's courts or crime victims. A total of $1.3 million was collected by the state in felony conviction surcharges alone in the 2004-05 fiscal year, according to the state Office of Court Administration.
Because some 80 percent of prisoners come from low-income backgrounds, simple things like the postponement of surcharge payments can mean use of a family's money for creature comfort items, items that improve the quality of life within a tough institution, Coleman said.
The use of family money toward surcharges might seem like a cut-and-dried issue, she said, but it is one way to maintain an inmate's connection to home. Those hometown connections are vital in the reduction of criminal reoffending, she said.
State inmates may go to the commissary to purchase personal items like food and personal hygiene products twice a month. They can make a $50 maximum purchase.
But some in the criminal justice field have concerns about postponing payment of state surcharges and fees. One worry is the risk of an inmate never paying them once they are out of the control of DOCS upon their release from prison, Cayuga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Jon Budelmann said.
Budelmann said defendants, not taxpayers who have not been convicted of crimes, should help foot the cost of the criminal justice system.
Even if Clark hadn't been granted a deferment, he would have come out of prison with a significant debt.
With a shorter prison term, a small portion of the surcharges and other fees that rack up into the hundreds are paid off from the amount inmates' earn, said Alan Rosenthal, director of justice strategies for the Syracuse office of the Center for Community Alternatives. His organization puts together alternative sentencing plans for defendants and has a program to help recently released inmates reestablish a life on the outside.
The unpaid surcharges are turned into civil judgments, which adds an additional hurdle for ex-inmates to reenter into lawful society because in addition to the taint of a felony conviction, an employer credit check turns up a history of fines, fees and surcharges that are unpaid, Rosenthal said.
“It's a vicious cycle. In the long run, it ends up being counterproductive,” Rosenthal said. “It doesn't get paid. It doesn't add money to the state budget, but what it does do, they come back home with a bad credit history.”
DOCS officials said it is not uncommon for orders to be made like Fandrich's and they accede to a judicial order when they are made.
“The judge has the discretion to order a delay in the collection of surcharges,” said Linda Foglia, DOCS' assistant public information officer. “When the Department of Correctional Services receives the inmate and the commitment papers order the delay, we follow the order.”
Both Fandrich and Cayuga County Judge Peter Corning said they willingly order the postponement of the payment of state surcharges when sentencing defendants to shock probation, which involve prison terms in Cayuga County Jail, because the county probation department ensures the collection of the money once the shock probation of defendants' sentences are over.
While Corning said he has never ordered the postponement of a surcharge payment for a state prisoner and would not likely do so, he said the high number of state surcharges has the negative consequence of almost “putting courts in the collection agency business.”
While surcharges are a revenue generator for the state, Corning said, the nonpayment of those fees by defendants can lead to further court appearances, adding more to an already clogged system.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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