Department of Corrections to spend $1.3 million of welfare fund for prisoners

Washington’s Department of Corrections has outlined new plans to spend $1.3 million collected from incarcerated people for phone calls and other fees – money that they’ve been criticized for sitting on, as the dollars are meant to go to improving prisoner welfare.

But the spending would still represent only a fraction of the $12 million the state has piled up in its Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund. And prisoners’ families are dissatisfied with how the department wants to use the money.

Under the department’s plan, the dollars will primarily go to facility beautification projects, music programs and the “Washington Way” program, which focuses on making prison life similar to life on the outside.

While families are happy to see money going to things like toys in visitation areas for children, Monte said the dollars spent on beautification could have been used for things like raincoats, workout equipment and other basic quality of life improvements for prisoners.

“The people (in prison) would rather have things that would benefit them, versus going outside and seeing a rose plant,” said Kristel Monte, one of the two family members of people in prison who sit on the agency’s Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund advisory board. “It’s kind of a waste.”

The Department of Corrections said it asked prison managers to “consult their incarcerated population and family councils to brainstorm ideas” for how the funds could be used. But Monte said her local family council never discussed brainstorming ideas for the fund, and other families have told her they didn’t know they could submit ideas.

The Department of Corrections has not yet released its full budget for the fund for this fiscal year, which started July 1 and ends in June 2025. The $1.3 million covers the first quarter of the fiscal year, which ended in September. Based on a public update from the agency on Oct. 25, funds from the first quarter have not yet been spent.

Still, it’s the most the Department of Corrections has planned to spend from the fund in recent history, Monte said. Monte believes the agency decided to spend down the fund because they’re worried the Legislature will want to use the money. The agency would not confirm whether this is the case, but acknowledged that the Legislature could use the money if it decided to.

Many family members are frustrated that the Department of Corrections did not expand a transportation and lodging reimbursement program, a request Monte said has been pending for at least two years.

Family members can get up to $50 reimbursed per visit twice a month, but they must choose between transportation or lodging per reimbursement, and can’t use the money for both, according to family members who attended the Oct. 25 meeting. And for families who travel from out-of-state, the reimbursement doesn’t mean much.

“That’s nothing,” Monte said. “That’s probably not even taxes on your plane ticket or your car rental.”

During the meeting, agency officials said that they haven’t made any decisions about the transportation reimbursement but are hoping to revive a work group on a proposal.