proposed laws

PA Bill Number: HB777

Title: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Description: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (104-97)

Last Action Date: Mar 27, 2024

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State. Rep. Todd Stephens proposes bill to divert prisoner wages to victims :: 07/13/2015

A bill recently passed by the state house, and introduced by state Rep. Todd Stephens (R-151st District), would make significant changes in the way victims of crimes are compensated by prison inmates.

House Bill 1089 would require mandatory deductions from the wages inmates make while imprisoned, and allocate that money deducted to fulfill the costs, fees, and court-ordered payments to their victims.

“Very simply, if someone steals your TV, they should not be able to buy themselves a TV in prison before paying you for the TV they stole,” Stephens said.

That example is based on a real case — in April, Commonwealth court ruled against a prisoner in Lehigh County who was able to purchase a color television from the prison commissary, and a cable television subscription, by using his earnings and gifts from those outside. In 2012 that prisoner was transferred to a prison in New Jersey but failed to cancel his cable subscription, and charges were deducted from his inmate account each month until he returned nine months later. That inmate appealed the roughly $130 in cable charges he had incurred, and Stephens said that case is an example of why inmates should be required by his new bill to dedicate part of their earnings to their victims.

“This guy only owed a couple hundred dollars in restitution, and according to (court record) has not paid a penny, but he’s sitting in a state prison cell, watching cable TV, paying a monthly cable bill, and having bought the televisions,” Stephens said.

In recent testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, a professor described an ice cream stand for prisoners within the State Correctional Institute at Graterford, Stephens said, “with two scoops for $1. These are the types of things these guys are spending money from their accounts on, before their victims — before they have repaid what the victims are owed.”

According to Stephens’ office, from 2011 through November 2012, commonwealth courts ordered defendants to pay more than $430 million in restitution to victims, but those victims only received roughly $50 million — slightly more than 11 percent of what they were owed, according to the representative.

HB 1089, which passed the state House June 25 by a 152 to 38 vote, amends state statutes to require correctional facilities “to make monetary deductions from at least 25 percent of the offender’s wages and 50 percent of all deposits made to inmate personal accounts,” for the purposes of restitution, filing fees, or other court-ordered costs. Current law authorizes, but doesn’t require, those deductions, said Stephens.

“As a prosecutor, I would continually hear from victims asking ‘When are they going to be repaid?’ ‘Why is it taking so long?’ I’m only getting $3 a month out of the defendant, it’ll take him decades to repay me,” he said.

“Anything we can do to help accelerate the repayments to our victims, I think is a good thing,” Stephens said.

The fiscal note for the bill states the Department of Corrections “would experience a fiscal impact from this legislation; however, the exact amount is indeterminable.” Variables that factor into that impact include the number of inmates who would become indigent, and the number who are currently ineligible for parole due to inability to pay their Victim Compensation Funds. Inmates make between 19 and 50 cents per hour for work performed while imprisoned, according to the fiscal note, and if the bill becomes law, county prisons would need to develop guidelines for those collections in conjunction with the state Department of Corrections. DOC statistics state throughout the past two years, roughly 500 inmates would not have been eligible for parole because they were unable to pay their VCF, and fees of $60 to $100 are generally imposed on most offenders. Those unable to pay the VCF fee are not denied parole, and the fees become obligations of the parolee, which reduces the prison population and the accompanying costs of housing inmates.

“The Governor’s Budget Office and the DOC believe enactment of this legislation could increase the number of fees that must be paid in this manner, but the exact amount is indeterminable,” says the fiscal note, written by Jeff Miller of the House Appropriations Committee.

DOC is also required to provide “hygiene products” to inmates who have negative account balances, and roughly 21,000 inmates have less than $10 in their accounts, with an additional 13,000 who have between $10 and $50 in those accounts. Because more than 60 percent of state inmates have less than $50 in their accounts, “this legislation would lead to a reduction in inmate accounts, shifting costs for these personal hygiene products to the commonwealth,” states the fiscal note.

The Norristown-based Victim Services Center of Montgomery County is a nonprofit that provides advocacy, counseling and other confidential support for crime victims and their families, and VSC Direct Services Supervisor Erin Slight said “anything that promotes victim’s rights, I am all for.”

“I think it’s a fantastic idea — anything that can promote more responsibility of perpetrators, and get the victims back what they are due, is fantastic,” she said.

VSC assists victims with filing the paperwork for both victim’s compensation and restitution for victims — “the difference between the two is that victim’s compensation doesn’t pay for property damage, or stolen or lost items,” she said.

The largest expense VSC tends to see is the cost of new locks for those who are robbed, and those costs are typically not paid by victim’s compensation — “if they pay out of pocket, that’s a big (expense),” she said.

“Another one is clothing: it may seem kind of trivial, but a sexual assault victim’s clothing can be taken at the hospital, and they’re never reimbursed for that back. Restitution can help with things like that, which maybe the outside person doesn’t necessarily think of as important, and maybe can be meaningful for the victim,” Slight said.

In the calendar year from July 1 2014 to July 1 2015, VSC helped roughly 2,500 victims of various types of crime recover just over $217,000 through victim’s compensation, which went to cover medical expenses, funeral costs, relocations, medication, and more.

VSC also helps advocate for victims, and connect them with other services offered by county agencies and nonprofits, and maintains an emergency hotline 1-888-521-0983 for any victim who needs assistance. Volunteers are always needed and can do so by calling the hotline or visiting www.VictimServicesCenter.org, and Slight said she thinks Stephens’ bill can most benefit those victimized by inmates with long sentences.

“What about people who are given life sentences? There’s nothing holding these people accountable to pay (restitution) back, because they’re in jail for the rest of their life. The thing I thought (about the bill) was ‘Wow, that would be amazing for the people that have really lengthy sentences,” she said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said this week she thinks the bill “is helpful, because it provides a mechanism that victims can start collecting restitution in the earliest stages of a defendant serving a sentence.”

“In the past, victims would never be able to collect anything until the defendant was out of prison, and working, and paying toward (the restitution). This bill provides a very direct mechanism” for restitution to be collected earlier, she said.

The DA’s office frequently sees cases with large restitution amounts owed to victims that are rarely, if ever, repaid, “so many that it’s hard to give just one example,” according to the DA.

Some defendants make payments toward their restitution as part of plea arrangements, “and we certainly appreciate that,” Ferman said, but many don’t make any payments to victims until they’ve been paroled, start working outside of prison, and set up payment plans.

“What we see very frequently is large amounts of restitution that are paid very slowly, if at all,” Ferman said.

“I always think the victims should be paid first — before the court, before the prison, before anything else. That should be our first priority — to make our victims whole,” she said.

Stephens said this week the prospects of his bill passing during the current session are uncertain due to last-minute state budget talks, but the 152 votes in favor as opposed to only 38 against were “a pretty good showing.” The percentages in the final bill were modified during discussions from an original proposal that 75 percent of wages and gifts be taken, and Stephens said.

“We want to help victims be repaid, and there was a concern that 75 percent was too much, so we worked it out and arrived at 50 (percent),” he said.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan Bensinger said fines, restitution, and court costs are already deducted from any money an inmate receives, and inmates are required by Act 84 of 1998 and several subsequent laws to pay a minimum of $60 for fees imposed as part of the court costs for convictions.

Sine 2005 DOC has collected between $3 million and $5 million per year in Act 84 fines and restitution money, combined with victim’s compensation and victim services funds: in 2006, $3.8 million in Act 84 funds and $547,681.08 in CVCF money was collected, with the former figure peaking at more than $5 million in 2009 before declining to $3.7 million in 2014, and CVCF funds steadily increasing over time to $924,331.38 in 2014.

“DOC looks forward to working with the general assembly on this and all legislation that seeks to improve the criminal justice system,” Bensinger said.

http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20150712/state-rep-todd-stephens-proposes-bill-to-divert-prisoner-wages-to-victims