Second of two parts. Read the first part here.
Sonoma County inmates fund their own welfare and education programs with purchases through the jail commissary, but even as prices have climbed for everything from deodorant and toothpaste to stamped envelopes and ramen, less and less of the revenue is being spent for their benefit.
The fund currently sits at $1.35 million and has topped the million-dollar mark for years. Sonoma County Sheriff’s officials argue that the balance is key to maintaining the “volatile” fund’s long-term sustainability. But critics say the very concept of relying on inmates and their loved ones to fund core jail programming is ethically questionable.
Like at many detention facilities, jail store profits go into what’s called an Inmate Welfare Trust Fund. The California state penal code sets out restrictions but also provides some leeway for spending.
In Sonoma County, expenditures from the fund, which are intended for educational, vocational, legal and recreational services and supplies, dropped from $589,000 in fiscal year 2020-2021 to $408,000 in fiscal year 2022-2023, according to annual audits.
Spending has gone to educational programs, staff salary and benefits, books and media subscriptions, cable television costs ($5,481 last year), staff training and conferences ($1,269 in 2022), free phone call cards during the Covid-19 lockdown ($25,740 in 2021), office supplies, equipment and sometimes unspecified maintenance.
In the last full year of accounting ending in 2023, the jail spent just $87,951 on inmate education, a quarter of which went to law library services, a constitutional right, not a privilege. The 2023 total is roughly 10% less than the $96,659 spent on education in the preceding year and almost 40% less than the $142,866 spent July 2020 to June 2021 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By contrast, $237,240 of the fund last year was spent on two county positions to coordinate inmate programs.
Jail staffing shortages since the pandemic have limited the ability to provide programming or even get inmates out of their cells. However, the Sheriff’s Office has made strides in hiring recently and said that improvements have extended to class offerings.
“Spending from the fund should not be interpreted as a measure of services provided,” the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said in written responses to a questions from The Press Democrat. “The amount of programming has increased but with lower cost to the (Inmate Welfare Trust Fund). The Sheriff’s Office has been able to do this by leveraging other funding when possible, establishing partnerships with local community-based organizations, and engaging programs that have secured their own funding.”
Examples of programming at no cost to the county or inmates include courses from Santa Rosa Junior College and Five Keys, a charter high school and vocational training provider, as well as some substance use disorder treatment services and planned puppy training and bike repair classes. There was a recent music composition course, too, in collaboration with the Juilliard School and the jail’s first-ever job fair in July. An expanded tablet program, with legal research resources and self-directed classes covering substance abuse recovery, trauma healing and reentry strategies has reportedly also allowed for cost savings. The Sheriff’s Office said 236 individuals took one or more classes in July — about one-third of the jail’s current population — and classes aren’t all full.
Still, the Inmate Welfare Trust Fund had an ending fund balance of just over $1.35 million in 2023 and has had a $1 million-plus balance for eight years in a row, and jail officials said “there are no plans to specifically increase spending.”
The reason, they say, is a matter of “capacity and stewardship.” Operational factors like the amount of space suitable for classes and staff and schedule availability limit how much programming can be offered. Moreover, the Sheriff’s Office said, “trust revenue is volatile and has been decreasing over time while costs are increasing.” For example, state regulatory changes in 2021 stopped jails from adding phone call markups to fund welfare trusts. In Sonoma County, phone calls that now cost seven cents per minute previously came with more than 200% in added fees.
“With no demonstrated need to increase spending at this time, and without consistent or reliable revenue to offset increased spending, a more reserved spending approach will sustain the fund for a longer period of time,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
