Debit Cards Ease Financial Burdens in Jail

Rule No. 1 on the card’s back shouts it out: “Possession of this card by anyone other than the owner is a VIOLATION OF JAIL RULES.”

It’s a warning to Los Angeles County Jail inmates--who use the cards to access petty cash while locked up--to watch their backs. The cards have sparked violence.

Up to three years ago, inmates were allowed to carry cash to purchase items such as toothpaste, stationery, pens, pencils, cookies and candy bars, said Lt. Terry Carlton of the sheriff’s Inmate Services office.

“The problem was, various crimes were connected to the cash,” Carlton said, so sheriff’s administrators made cash illegal and provided inmates plastic debit cards to operate vending machines. The program is a success, he said, despite a recent weekend of brawls over a candy bar and a debit card at the Pitchess jail in Castaic.

One inmate suffered a superficial puncture wound during a 20-inmate fight that started after a prisoner stole another’s debit card, said Deputy Bob Killeen.

The fight over the candy bar sent two inmates to the hospital--one with serious cuts and another with a broken arm, said Deputy Elsa Avila. That fight also involved about 20 inmates.

Still, Carlton said, debit cards are the lesser evil, compared to the troubles that allowing cash into the jails would cause.

“How do you buy narcotics in a jail if you have no cash? ‘I’ll pay you when I get out?’ Yeah right. The gambling. How do you gamble if you have no money?”

Carlton said the jail system makes from 3% to 5% annually from vending machine sales, with profits going to education programs and to purchase personal hygiene supplies for penniless inmates.

“Overall it’s kind of a positive for the department,” Carlton said. “It helps hold the lid on things.”

Though Carlton said drugs and cash still get into county jails and probably always will, he said a decline in drug use can be attributed to a lack of cash, forcing inmates to barter for controlled substances.

“It all has to do with controlling your jails and securing your jails.”

In Los Angeles County jails, inmates are permitted to visit commissaries once or twice a week, Carlton said, where they can purchase no more than $50 worth of small personal hygiene products by having their identification armband scanned and their account, called an inmate trust fund, docked.

As part of those purchases, inmates can buy the $10 debit cards to insert into vending machines located throughout the jail.

Inmates cannot carry more than two cards at a time. Those caught with stolen cards are prosecuted, Carlton said.

Before the access card program began, inmates submitted written requests for their cash, often waiting up to five days to get it, Carlton said.

“It took a lot of time to do all that and sometimes it created frustration with the inmates,” he said. “Part of this was to speed up access to their money.

“The vending machine presents a way for the inmate to purchase something in-between [commissary visits],” Carlton said.

Families and friends of county inmates often deposit the dollars that wind up on the debit cards.

“In the old days, it was ‘bring me socks and cigarettes,’ ” Carlton said of visiting day. “Well, we don’t allow smoking now and we give ‘em socks. It’s now more likely they ask for money to buy candy bars . . . The debit card is the candy bar.”