At a recent meeting at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex (MOCC), the inmate population was informed that beginning in July, 2011, the administration is going to withhold $3 a month from each inmate who owns a television set, to assist in the payment for Cable Television Service provided by Suddenlink.

CATV is not a free service for the inmate population, as it is being paid from the inmate benefit fund (IBF). The IBF is a fund established by legislature and is funded by the inmates and other special groups, and not by the taxpayers of this state.

Nothing can be found in the West Virginia Code that allows the authorization for withholding of any funds from an inmate trustee account to supplement the IBF.

West Virginia Code 25-1-3b (c)(3) specifies that payment of cable television service is to be paid from the IBF. West Virginia Code 25-1-3b (1-6) further specifies which moneys are to make up the IBF and mandatory deduction from the inmate spending account into the IBF is not covered by this code or any other law that can be found.

Under whose or what authority is MOCC taking money out of an inmate’s spending account to augment the IBF without proper authorization?

Sincerely,

Danny Garrison

Mt. Olive, W.Va.