TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2008
It's noon on Tuesday, the 9th of December, and I'm writing from the prison library. At 2:30 P.M. I'll continue mentoring two inmates preparing for their GED exam in February. While waiting, I figured I'd knock out my Tuesday blog by covering the Financial Responsibility Plan (FRP).
The last two days brought severe anxiety for two friends in Taft Camp. Yesterday Oscar (Big O) was summoned to Camp Control to meet with SIS officials regarding his bunkie's gambling. Today, my friend, Sean, was reassigned from his two man cubicle in the back of the dorm to a 3 man cubicle in front of the bathroom. Sean forgot to leave enough funds in his account to meet his required restitution payment, aka FRP.
Sean, like many of the white collar offenders at Taft, are obligated to pay restitution. When judges have imposed monetary fines or restitution as part of a sentence, the inmate's unit team requires him to participate in a FRP plan. Inmates participating in this plan must maintain enough money in their prison commissary account to meet all regularly scheduled payments. The payments are computed according to the quantity of money that passes through the inmate's account over a six-month period. As an example, when I arrived at Taft in April, I was ordered to pay $25.00 a quarter. During my second review, six months later, my payments were bumped up to $100 dollars a quarter. The exact words of my case manager were, "You have too much money on your books and we're increasing your FRP payment."
Those who fail to make their payment can be penalized with severe sanctions, including transfer to a less desirable cube, job transfer (probably cleaning toilets) and loss of telephone and commissary privileges. Sean resided in what many would call the best cube in the dorm. Now, he's stuck in front of the bathroom in a 3 man cube until his next payment in March. It's as if he moved from Beverly Hills to Skid Row (which happens to be the nick name of his new home).
