Prison or profit center?
Lisa Goodine of Portland supports herself on Social Security and a part-time job as a cashier. She also sends what money she can to her son, Shawn Goodine, an inmate at Maine State Prison in Warren, so he can buy coffee, snacks and hygiene products.
So Goodine was shocked to find out that some of the money she sends her son is still being deducted to pay a fine for a 10-year-old disciplinary infraction, when he was serving a previous sentence at Maine Correctional Center in Windham.
“I’m his only mother, I’m the only one that will help him. I don’t like his choices, but he’s my kid,” she said. “I know he’s being punished – he deserves to be – but he needs money, too, in jail.”
Goodine realized during a phone call with her son in September that he was not getting the full amount she would send him. Shawn requested his account statements and saw that his mother sent him $50 five times since June, and each time $12.50 was taken out for a monetary sanction generated March 27, 2009.
Read more: https://portlandphoenix.me/prison-or-profit-center/