I recently returned from the Public Health Institute of the national Epilepsy Foundation.
For this conference, we explored social determinants of health around public safety. Over the course of 2024, PHI participants will lead Seizure Recognition and First Aid Training for Law Enforcement as an intentional focus, and we will advocate for people who have been arrested during or after a after a seizure. At times, symptoms of seizures and the recovery period that follows them (the post-ictal state) are mistaken for intoxication, drug use, or drug withdrawal. As we can imagine, there are cascading effects physically, psychologically, financially, and socially for people who are arrested under these circumstances.
In 2024, we will also explore the systems and conditions that impact people with disabilities who are living in prisons and jails. Are their civil rights upheld? Are they able to access their medications? As we can imagine, there are also physical, psychological, financial, and social concerns here as well.
Today, I’d like to lift up some aspects of the financial cost:
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a local meeting for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The Rev. Dr. William Barber II and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis are Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, a renewed, second chapter of the campaign that the Rev. Martin Luther King initiated just before he was assassinated. This campaign seeks to challenge “systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation” through conversation and direct action.
Each meeting of the Poor People’s Campaign seeks to center the voices, stories, and experiences of people who are directly impacted by these systemic forces. When I attended a local meeting, one of our speakers was a person who was formally incarcerated. He said that he speaks openly about his experience as often as possible because he wants to uplift the challenges that incarcerated people and their families carry while reducing the stigma that so many experience. He mentioned the deep, economic costs to incarcerated people and their families. An experience of poverty increases the odds of incarceration, and undoubtedly, incarceration can solidify poverty in the life of individuals and their families.
When a person is arrested, the first hurdle is cash bail. A judge sets a dollar amount for that bail. Those who can pay are permitted to return home and await trial, but those who are poor languish in jail. In addition to not being able to pay, people are not able to return to their workplaces. This can compound the challenge for an individual or a family.
Once incarcerated, phone calls with loved ones — including children who need parental contact — cost money per phone call. The family ends up paying that. Companies make money off of this.
Many jails and prisons, including where I live in Washtenaw County, Michigan, are moving away from in-person visitation. Instead, they only permit “visitation” via video, and families also have to pay for each usage of that video service.
Incarcerated individuals and families have to pay for attorneys, of course, and these services can cost thousands of dollars. The speaker on Saturday mentioned that he had to pay $10,000 for his attorney.
Prison food is notoriously bad. Because of this, incarcerated individuals often need funds to buy things at the commissary. They can earn small amounts of money through work (a whole other, necessary conversation can be had around financial incentives to make arrests) or their families can send money along.
Until recently, when it was struck down by the Michigan Supreme Court, some incarcerated people in Michigan had to pay a rate per day to stay in prison. Can you imagine? There is no choice to leave, but there is also a fee to stay. “They are charging us for the privilege to stay in prison,” our speaker said.
And then, of course, when people leave an experience of incarceration, stigma makes it virtually impossible to find employment. The speaker mentioned above has a Master’s Degree, but he couldn’t even find a job waiting tables. “And we wonder why recidivism is high?” he asked.
We need to think about the enormous economic costs to individuals, families, and entire communities. . . Our incarcerated neighbors are our neighbors, but sadly, they are often out of view. Certainly, some have made mistakes they deeply regret, and some, like the people I’ve mentioned above, are completely innocent. In the midst of this, doesn’t the financial cost, and possible financial incentives to put people in jail, also also do harm?
Smuggling Grace 