Inmate Families Face Cash-Transfer Fees ‘Just to Stay Connected’

Families transferring funds to relatives in state prisons have no choice but to pay fees that can take more than a third of their money off the top—an expense that lingers even as the cost of sending money plummets everywhere else.

The average fee to wire $20 to an incarcerated person in a state-run prison nationwide is 19% ($3.80), but ranges from 5% ($1) in some states to 37% ($7.40) in others, according to a recent Prison Policy Initiative study. Almost all of the money goes to the three private companies that monopolize the market.

“There really hasn’t been any ...