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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 29 august 2022
At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

By Pat Eaton-Robb will be decided in court.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Her lawyers have asked a
Two decades after her re- federal judge to block the
lease from prison, Teresa state from enforcing the
Beatty feels she is still being law against anyone, saying
punished. it remains unfair even after
When her mother died the amendments.
two years ago, the state Beatty acknowledges she
of Connecticut put a lien was guilty of selling and
on the Stamford home she possessing drugs, but said
and her siblings inherited. It nobody told her when she
said she owed $83,762 to went to jail that every day
cover the cost of her 2 1/2 behind bars would cost her
year imprisonment for drug more than a night at a fine
crimes. hotel.
Now, she’s afraid she’ll “It just drags you back to
have to sell her home of despair,” said Beatty, who
51 years, where she lives has had other brushes with
with two adult children, the law over drug posses-
a grandchild and her dis- sion since her release from
abled brother. jail, but has also become a
“I’m about to be home- certified nursing assistant.
less,” said Beatty, 58, who “That’s where I feel like
in March became the lead I’m at. I feel like no hope.
plaintiff in a lawsuit chal- Where do I go? All of this
lenging the state law that work and it feels like I’ve
charges prisoners $249 a done it in vain.”
day for the cost of their in- In this Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 photo, Fred Hodges, left, and Da'ee McKnight at their work- Pay-to-stay laws were put
carceration. “I just don’t place, Family ReEntry, a reentry support group aiming to break cycles of violence, crime and into place in many areas
think it’s right, because I incarceration in Bridgeport, Conn. Hodges and McKnight are former Connecticut inmates who during the tough-on-crime
feel I already paid my debt have been paying for cost of their incarceration. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) era of the 1980s and ’90s,
to society. I just don’t think said Brittany Friedman, an
it’s fair for me to be paying jails. Connecticut also over- get out, said state Rep. assistant professor of sociol-
twice.” Critics say it’s an unfair sec- hauled its statute this year, Steve Stafstrom, a Bridge- ogy at University of South-
All but two states have so- ond penalty that hinders keeping it in place only for port Democrat and a spon- ern California who is lead-
called “pay-to-stay” laws rehabilitation by putting the most serious crimes, sor of the repeal legislation. ing a study of the practice.
that make prisoners pay former inmates in debt for such as murder, and ex- The state retained its abil- As prison populations bal-
for their time behind bars, life. Efforts have been un- empting prisoners from hav- ity, though, to collect looned, Friedman said, pol-
though not every state ac- derway in some places to ing to pay the first $50,000 some prison debts already icymakers questioned how
tually pursues people for scale back or eliminate of their incarceration costs. on the books before the to pay for incarceration
the money. Supporters say such policies. Under the revised law, law changed. It’s unclear costs. “So, instead of raising
the collections are a legiti- Two states — Illinois and about 98% of Connecticut whether the change in taxes, the solution was to
mate way for states to re- New Hampshire — have inmates no longer have to the law, made after Beat- shift the cost burden from
coup millions of taxpayer repealed their laws since pay any of the costs of their ty sued, will be enough to the state and the taxpay-
dollars spent on prisons and 2019. incarceration after they keep her in her home. That ers onto the incarcerated.”

US sails warships through Taiwan Strait in 1st since Pelosi

Speaker Nancy Pelosi visit- ing Taiwan since Pelosi’s transit sent a “very clear
ed Taiwan earlier in August, visit, as well as sending message, very consistent
at a time when tensions warplanes and firing long- message ... that the United
have kept the waterway range missiles. It views the States Navy, the United
particularly busy. island as part of its national States military will sail, fly
The USS Antietam and USS territory and opposes any and operate wherever in-
Chancellorsville are con- visits by foreign govern- ternational law permits us
ducting a routine transit, ments as recognizing Tai- to do so.”
the U.S. 7th Fleet said. The wan as its own state. Kirby also noted the transit
cruisers “transited through China said it tracked the was “very consistent with
a corridor in the Strait that movement of the ships. our ‘One China’ policy,
is beyond the territorial sea “Troops of the (Eastern) very consistent with our
of any coastal State,” the Theater Command are on desire to make sure that
statement said. high alert and ready to foil we can continue to work
China conducted many any provocation at any toward a free and open
military exercises in the time,” said senior Col. Shi Yi, Indo-Pacific.”
The guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) transits strait as it sought to punish spokesperson for the Peo- The U.S. regularly sends its
the Philippine Sea, June 18, 2016. (Mass Communication Spe- Taiwan after Pelosi visited ple Liberation Army’s East- ships through the Taiwan
cialist 2nd Class Ryan J. Batchelder/U.S. Navy via AP) the self-ruled island against ern Theater Command. Strait as part of what it calls
Beijing’s threats. White House National Se- freedom of navigation ma-
Associated Press Taiwan Strait on Sunday, China has sent many war- curity Council spokesman neuvers. The 100 mile-wide
(AP) — The U.S. Navy sailed in the first such transit pub- ships sailing in the Taiwan John Kirby, speaking on (160 kilometer-wide) strait
two warships through the licized since U.S. House Strait and waters surround- CNN on Sunday, said the divides Taiwan from China.