Criminal Fee Called a Misstep

Everybody wants to be tough on crime.
Nobody knew where Gov. Deval Patrick's idea for charging criminals a fee came from. Mostly they hope it's gone. He mentioned it at a meeting with members of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, who were taken aback. So was Brandyn Keating, a member of Patrick's working group on public safety.

"I didn't hear this idea floated anywhere," she said, and called it "unrealistic and counterproductive. I have to believe he will come to his senses."

The idea has the half-clever appeal that plays well with the Howie Carr types. But the devil is in the details, according to Eileen McNamara's column in the Globe:

Requiring offenders to pay for the repercussions of their crimes is a time-honored practice across the country, from Illinois's surcharge on child pornographers to fund counseling for sexually abused children to Indiana's levy on domestic abusers to support battered women's shelters. But this state already imposes any number of fees on offenders to pay for everything from witness services and victim compensation to the tracking devices some wear around their ankles.

"I couldn't understand where this came from. No one talked to us or anyone else I know," said Lanny Kutakoff, executive director of the non profit Partakers Inc., which runs education programs in four state prisons. "This seems very much the antithesis of Patrick's philosophy."

It is the antithesis of thoughtful public policy, too. Patrick's projections that he could raise $10 million a year from a largely indigent population that is plagued by substance abuse and mental health problems is fanciful. "These people can't afford the fees they are forced to pay now," Kutakoff said, noting that Patrick's predecessor as governor, Mitt Romney, sharply increased probation fees a few days before he left office.

In the week since Patrick floated this lead balloon, the administration has said no more about it. The press office did not return a call seeking more details. The silence probably reflects the feedback Patrick is hearing from the inmate advocacy community, which had hoped that 16 years of Republican pandering to the tough-on-crime crowd would give way to meaningful corrections reform.

--Mb