in Newswire October 23, 2017

WA Man Files Suit Over Prepaid Debit Cards Issued After Jail Release

Last Updated on October 23, 2017

Reichert v. Keefe Commissary Network, L.L.C. et al.

Filed: October 20, 2017 ◆§ 3:17-cv-05848

A lawsuit challenges the mandatory issuance of fee-wracked, prepaid debit cards in lieu of cash to inmates released from Washington's Kitsap County Jail.

Defendant(s)

Keefe Commissary Network, L.L.C. Rapid Investments, Inc. Cache Valley Bank

Law(s)

State(s)

Washington

A proposed class action filed in Washington claims the plaintiff, upon being released from a four-hour stint at Kitsap County Jail in October 2016, was issued a mandatory prepaid debit AccessFreedom Card—instead of having his confiscated cash returned to him—that was reportedly subject to various “exorbitant, unreasonable fees.” The plaintiff’s lawsuit against Keefe Commissary Network (which operates as Access Corrections), Rapid Investments, Inc. (which does business as Rapid Financial Solutions of Access Freedom), and Cache Valley Bank alleges the companies took full advantage of his (and pretrial detainees) lack of bargaining power by imparting such high fees to access $177.66 of his own confiscated money, conduct the lawsuit decries as “deceptive, unfair, and unconscionable profiteering and self-dealing.”

From the lawsuit:

“[The defendants] impose the following fees for their inmate release card program in Kitsap County:

C. $2.50 ‘weekly maintenance fee,’ which actually occurs only 72 hours after an inmate receives the card, not after the inmate has kept a card balance for a least a week, and every week the card holds a balance thereafter;

D. $1.50 ‘ATM account inquiry fee;’

E. $2.95 ‘domestic ATM fee’ which is in addition to any surcharges that the ATM operator may assess);