California "Blesses" JPay with a Windfall

Out of the blue, San Quentin Prison has informed its wards that, as of Jan. 31, 2015, the institution will not longer be accepting money orders or checks on their behalf. From that date forward, all such instruments must be sent directly to JPay for the inmate's sake.

No doubt this is a HUGE windfall for JPay! Best believe that this is only a tentative rollout. Currently, CDCR oversees 34 prisons that are above their capacity of 112,164 inmates. Therefore, if this commencement proves successful (no resistance), California will, Mafia-esquely, turn over control of 100,000+ inmates' monetary interest into the hands of a third party.

Just as the Mafia would threaten, "Either you do business with us or you do business with no one," California has forewarned its charges. "If you want to do business (buy goods) inside of our prisons, your people MUST MAKE MONEY ORDERS OR CHECKS PAYABLE NOT TO YOURSELF (as been the practice for 100+ years) but to JPay first!" This strong-arm tactic is directly antithetical to the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:

Inmates have a PROPERTY INTEREST in MONEY RECEIVED FROM OUTSIDE SOURCES and thus, inmates are ENTITLED to DUE PROCESS before they can be DEPRIVED of these MONIES. (Mahers v. Halford 76 F3d 951 [8th Cir. 1996])

In addition, there's something very conspicuous about another statement found on this same CDCR page explaining this new JPay policy:

As of July 1, 2014, Western Union is NO LONGER UNDER CONTRACT with CDCR for this service [Electric Funds Transfer (EFT)].

Now, the "hustler incident" in me says that Western Union has refused to pay whatever appropriate kickbacks that were demanded and became persona non grata in this Mafia-esque conglomerate! Thus, earning JPay exclusivity over California prisons.

There's something extremely ominous about a state transferring monetary accounts from under its control into those of a private corporation. JPay can now draw interest on this money, also, reinvest it in numerous ways. We recently experienced the ill side effects from corporations investing clients' money into all types of speculative investments. Jesse Lava and Sarah Solon of the Nation magazine described perfectly the viperous nature of these companies that feed off of families' misery: "Profiting off mass incarceration is a dirty business" and "When people seek to profit from prisons, it creates powerful incentives to cut corners in the services they've been hired to provide." (Why This Company Wants You in Prison, Nov. 5, 2013).

If we continue to allow ourselves to become $$$ to our governments and their corporate cronies, whether guilty or not, who can really avoid falling victim to their almighty bottom line?

For more on JPay profiteering off of misery, watch the documentary by Dan Wagner of the Center for Public Integrity: Time is Money: Who is Making a Buck Off Prisoners' Families?
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/09/30/15797/time-money-whos-making-buck-prisoners-families

Notes
1. On CDCR's (California Dept. of Corrections and "Rehabilitation") website, it states that this is also the new policy at four other California prisons. "Sending money to inmates has changed at five prisons."
2. Quoted by Ted Swain, staff writer, San Quentin News, "Corrections Corporation of America Profits from Mass Incarceration," Feb-March 2014, p.8 (www.sanquentinnews.com)

[colored copy of a young family sitting on a sofa. The mother is leaning towards her family while holding a corded phone in one hand. The father is holding his baby and pointing towards the camera.]