The Department of Corrections replacement fee for IDs has become a significant burden for those least financially capable of coping with such costs. "General Rules and Regulations" issued by SCI-Greene, for example, state that an inmate will be charged $5 for replacement of IDs lost, destroyed or needing replacement due to change of appearance. Those rules also require that an inmate relinquish his ID to staff supervising work, commissary, visiting, chapel, education, dining or activities areas.
Of course inmates do lose or severely damage IDs and are thereby responsible for replacement. However, SCI-Greene staff routinely confiscate and charge for IDs that through no fault of the inmate are slightly cracked or no longer portray an inmate accurately. Consider an unemployed inmate whose ID photo was taken when a dysfunctional thyroid had caused a weight gain of as much as 100 pounds. Mecication subsequently returned him to his usual weight. He was unrecognizable via his ID. His ID was confiscated and his account assessed $5 for a new photo!
Many if not most of such replacement charges are unwarranted. Prison staff routinely possess and handle an inmate's ID for considerable periods and are thus responsible for its loss or damage. For example, when inmates have forgotten to collect their IDs when vacating an area, some staff have punched holes in those IDs and pinned them to that areas's bulletin board. Additional damage to the IDs occurred when torn from the board for return to the inmate. Yet, such damages to IDs require payment by the inmate of the $5 replacement fee!
Moreover, until recent years IDs were laminated with an additional plastic sheath that withstood frequent handling by inmates as well as prison staff during temporary possession of the ID. However, IDs are currently encased in a thin, brittle plastic that readily cracks/breaks with little pressure! Consequently, dozens of inmates often stand in line to obtain replacement IDs and to sign for withdrawal of the mandatory $5 fee!
If you have witnessed or experienced similar abuse of ID replacement policy at the DOC facility at which you are incarcerated, please send a detailed description of that scenario to:
Box 5251
Harrisburg, PA 17110
