The Prison Store - Exorbitant Prices Found in Commissaries

Prison commissaries are an essential but unexamined part of prison life. Serving as the core of the prison retail market, commissaries present yet another opportunity for prisons to shift the costs of incarceration to incarcerated people and their families, often enriching private companies in the process. In some contexts, the financial exploitation of incarcerated people is obvious, evidenced by the outrageous prices charged for simple services like phone calls and email.

When it comes to prison commissaries, however, prices themselves are not the only problem. Using a private commissary system also forces incarcerated people, and by extension, their families, to pay for basic necessities.

Food dominates commissary sales reports as prison and jail cafeterias are notorious for serving small portions of unappealing food. Another leading problem with prison food is inadequate nutritional content. While the commissary may help supplement a lack of calories in the cafeteria, it does not compensate for poor quality. No fresh food is available, items are often expired past expiration dates, and most commissary food items are heavily processed. Snacks and ready-to-eat food are major sellers, which is unsurprising given that many people need more food than the prison provides, and the easiest, and often only, alternatives are ramen and candy bars.

It's a myth that incarcerated people are buying luxuries; rather, most of the little money they have is spent on basic necessities. If your only bathing option is a shared shower area, aren’t shower sandals a necessity to avoid a fungal infection? Is using more than one roll of toilet paper a week really a luxury, especially during periods of intestinal distress which, considering the dietary intake discussed above, is common in prison facilities? What if you have a chronic medical condition that requires ongoing use of over-the-counter remedies, like antacid tablets, vitamins, hemorrhoid ointment, antihistamine, or eye drops? All of these items are typically only available in the commissary, and only for those who can afford to pay, and the quality of these remedies is often subpar, expired, and thus ineffective.

Considering most incarcerated people are essentially earning a pittance (the average daily minimum for non-industry penal jobs was US$0.86) - and in some states, not paid for their work at all -  their meager earnings go right back to the prison commissary. When their wages are not enough, they must rely on family members to transfer money to their accounts, and families are effectively forced to subsidize the prison system.  Others in prison who lack such support systems simply can’t afford the commissary at all.

Incarceration is expensive, and prisons and jails often attempt to shift those incarceration costs to inmates and their families, charging for phone calls, emails, and even basic necessities from the commissary like food and toiletries, passing on costs to people and communities who can least afford them.