Inmates to use laptops

Prisoners are an educated lot, some say. And, with what it is costing them, maybe they ought to be.

What are the legal services available to inmates and detainees of the McHenry County Jail? Services inside the jail, I mean.

The U.S. Marshals’ Service Contract Inmates (I suppose these must be the “detainees” in the special wing at the Jail) are required to get five hours of Law Library time apiece. A letter recently provided with a FOIA response did not identify the time period for those five hours, so I’ll assume it’s five hours per month.

Law Libraries need books and resources. One would think that, if a government contract requires a facility to provide a service or a resource, then it would pay for it. And anyone making a deal with the government would certainly require funds to meet the contract.

But how do these resources get paid for at the McHenry County Jail? Apparently, not out of the $90/day raked in from the Feds for each detainee. Instead, the legal services are paid for by the Inmate Profit Account, which collects hefty profits every time an inmate or detainee buys a Phone Card or a candy bar (or other snack food to supplement the meals from the kitchen). That Inmate Profit Account has a $75,000 balance, even though it just forked out over $14,000 in March for three (3) laptops and hard drives.

Three, you say? Nearly $5,000 for a laptop and a hard drive? Well, why not buy the best, when you are flush with cash; right?

I thought maybe the Jail had bought 10-20 laptops for $14,000. I mean, what the heck? I read the Sunday ads. How much power in a computer does an inmate need? When I heard that no laptops were in use in the jail, it was time to ask questions. In the next week or so, they will be put to use.

And what kind of laptops are they? The Panasonic Toughbook 30. I didn’t see any evidence of comparison shopping, just the advisory to buy a computer on the State’s Bid Contract so that no bidding would be involved.

How is the Toughbook 30 described? An online search reveals such words and phrases as “rugged”; “6-foot drop certified”; “the ultimate in durability”; “fully-rugged”; (operational) “in the harshest environments”; “certified sealed all-weather design.”

Look at this description from Google Products: “Out in the field or down in the dirt, the durable Panasonic Toughbook 30 is built to take a beating. This brawny workhorse is encased in magnesium alloy, with durability designed into every seal, hinge and connector. Plus, as the industry's fastest fully rugged mobile PC, it's built for lightening-quick processing and wireless connectivity. Communicate in real time from remote areas, access databases online and run sophisticated software applications even in the harshest environments. The Toughbook 30 is vibration and drop-shock resistant.”

Sounds like an ideal laptop for the mountains of Afghanistan, doesn’t it? You know, bouncing over bone-jarring rocks in a Hummer? It might even survive in the McHenry County Jail!

Be sure to check out the pricing on the Google shopping site, too. From $2,708 to $4,170, with many sellers in the $3,000-3,500 range. So, why pay $13,521 for three ($4,507 ea.)? Plus three hard drives for $717?

When you are spending someone else’s money, why shop???

Oh, yes, then electronic law books will be needed, and they aren’t free. They will run about $9,720/year ($810/month).

Keep eating those candy bars, guys. And don’t forget to buy those $20 Phone Cards.. Half of your $20 goes into the Inmate Profit Account.

MCSD Inmate Profit Account - very profitable

If nothing else, the Inmate Profit Account of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department jail is aptly named. It's an account that profits off the incarceration of prisoners, persons charged and awaiting trial or legal outcome, and immigration detainees.

Six months of entries in the Disbursements Journal are being examined. During that time, the balance in the Inmate Profit Account increased by over $9,400 from a starting balance on 11/6/09 of $73,399 to an ending balance on 5/25/10 of $82,862.

First, what's the source of revenues for the Account? Generally speaking, the "income" to the Account comes from the sale of phone cards to inmates and from the profit on their purchases from the jail commissary. You can examine the list of items an inmate can purchase by visiting www.mycarepack.com/

What does the Account spend money on? It is to spend money on services to inmates and equipment and supplies. An examination of the expenditures is being made but, at first glance, spending $760/month on a subscription legal service that is probably the envy of small law firms caught my eye. Also, the purchase of two television sets and mounting brackets for over $1,400 and the purchase of laptop computers and hard drive for over $14,000.

Notice that MyCarePack.com is the only vendor of prison commissary services in Illinois. How did they get selected? Were they the "lowest bidder" and no other jail or prison in the State of Illinois wanted such a good deal for its inmates? Look at the price of a plain Hershey bar: $1.45. You decide. (You can't even determine the size of the Hershey; ounces should be listed on the price list.)

The Auditor General of the State of Illinois took a good look at prison financial records at Stateville (Joliet) in 2000 and stated, "Profits for the inmate commissary should be reasonable and consistent".

The Auditor General also said, "Unified Code of Corrections 730 ILCS 5/3-7-2a requires a correctional center commissary to establish a selling price based on cost with an additional charge of 3% to 10%. The Stateville Inmate Commissary profits should fall within a reasonable and consistent range." Do these same rules apply to the McHenry County Jail?

Phone cards here carry the equivalent of a 100% mark-up. That's because 50% of the Phone Card price goes into the Inmate Profit Account. This and other categories will be carefully examined in the days ahead.

MCSD Inmate Profit Account - in the Black black

Over the past several months I have wondered about what happens to the profits at the Jail that are generated by inmate purchases of commissary items and phone calls. I had learned that 50% of a phone card price ($20.00) goes into something called the Inmate Profit Account and that account is supposed to fund purchases of goods and services that benefit the inmates (since they are paying for them). I don't yet know what the Jail's take is from the food and other items sold to inmates and detainees.

Several times I started to request information about the Inmate Profit Account, and then other things got in the way. But recently I did request information, and I received a partial answer today.

What I asked for were the monthly reports for the past twelve months showing income and expenditures of the Account and the most recent Annual Report or summary for the fiscal year of the Profit Account. I did modify my request slightly, to minimize the initial workload on the FOIA Officer.

I'm going to have to dig out my green eye-shade, slip on those straps over my shirt sleeves, sharpen my pencils, get some new ribbon for my adding machine and do some serious inspection of this Inmate Profit Account. The fund balance on 11/6/09 was $73,399.70.

Got it? Seventy-three THOUSAND three hundred ninety-nine dollars and 70 cents!

I didn't get a year's worth of information, but I did get a copy of the Disbursements Journal from October 30, 2009 through May 25, 2010.

Certain lines immediately jumped off the page at me. Deposits of $21,935.73 on 11/13/09; of $2,939.43 on 1/20/10; of $9,577.30 on 2/1/10; of $4,973.37 on 3/9/10; of $5,696.23 ("phone") on 5/6/10, and other deposits. First question? Why do they vary so widely?

And then certain expenditures caught my eye: $13,521.00 on 1/29/10 for inmate laptop computers; $759.99 per month (month after month) for inmate law services (LexisNexis); $4,952.60 to USPS for 20 boxes of pre-stamped envelopes on 12/30/09; and then $3,717.60 to USPS on 3/23/10 for "indigent envelopes"; $3,172 to the Chicago Sun-Times for the "inmate newsletter"; $376.86 on 5/17/10 for inmate fund checks.

In six months 50 checks were written.

Stand by for analysis and more questions.