Release Cards
Correctional facilities are increasingly using fee-riddled cards to repay people they release — money in someone’s possession when initially arrested, money earned working in the facility, or money sent by friends and relatives. Before the rise of these release cards, people were given cash or a check. Now, they are instead given a mandatory prepaid card, which comes with high fees that eat into their balance. We submitted this report as a comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, urging the CFPB to protect consumers recently-released from custody.
Our new report:
Proposed Amendments to Regulation E: Curb exploitation of people released from custody (PDF)
March 2015
by Stephen Raher
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
Exhibit 3
Exhibit 4
Related blog posts:
- CFPB risks release card protections (August 2017)
- A partial victory (October 2016)
- Summary of the comment (March 2015)
- CFPB call for comments (February 2015)
Model legislation:
Press coverage
- Lawsuit reveals how tech companies profit off the prison-industrial complex, by Katie Rose Quandt, ThinkProgress, February 9, 2018
- The Financial Firm That Cornered the Market on Jails, by Arun Gupta, The Nation, August 1, 2015
- Menendez Joins Booker, Colleagues in Urging CFPB to Protect Formerly Incarcerated from Predatory Prison Prepaid Cards, November 3, 2015
- How private bankers cash in on released prisoners, by German Lopez, Vox, November 3, 2015
- Chase Bank Accused of Gouging Ex-Inmates, by Andrew Thompson, Courthouse News Service, September 14, 2015
- 'Release cards' turn inmates and their families into profit stream, by Amadou Diallo, Al Jazeera America, April 20, 2015
- Lack of choice on high-fee inmate debit cards draws widespread criticism, by Daniel Wagner, The Center for Public Integrity, March 25, 2015
- Inmates Charged Fee After Leaving Jail, by Herb Weisbaum, NBC News, March 24, 2015
Recommended Reading:
50 state incarceration profiles
All of our recent reports about prison/jail growth, racial disparities, and more, re-organized by state.
Legal Resources for Incarcerated People
The internet's first always-up-to-date list of organizations that provide legal services and resources for incarcerated people, organized by state.
Exploitation in the criminal justice system
Companies and correctional facilities exploit captive markets. We expose them.
Prison Gerrymandering Project
We are leading the movement to protect our democracy from the Census Bureau's prison miscount.