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Texas prison inmates spending $100 million per year: On what?

In preparation for a forthcoming article, Matt Stiles at the Texas Tribune just put online an interactive dataset on the subject of "What Texas inmates buy." The answer: Far and away mostly food, followed distantly by grooming materials, stamps, and clothing. Texas inmates collectively spend more than $100 million per year at TDCJ commissaries. Nearly all that money comes from inmate families, not the offenders themselves.Relatedly, TDCJ recently suggested diverting $5 million in profits from commissary sales if the Legislature requires them to cut their budget. Perhaps we'll learn more details about that in the Tribune's upcoming coverage.

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on April 06, 2010 (boomark / email).