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APPENDIX A: Prison system "Inmate Welfare Fund" (IWF) policies (all 50 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons) as of May 2024, collected and categorized by the Prison Policy Initiative
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The following dataset comes from the report, Shadow Budgets: How mass incarceration steals from the poor to give to the prison.
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Last updated: May 2, 2024
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Disclaimer:
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This spreadsheet is published as a public service and while we welcome feedback at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/contact.html, we publish it as-is.
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A note on word choice:
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The Prison Policy Initiative does not use the term “inmate” to describe incarcerated people. This word has multiple negative and demeaning connotations inside and outside of jails and prisons and has historically been used to objectify and denigrate people held in these facilities.

Unfortunately, “inmate welfare fund” (IWF) is the most common title given to these funds, both in corrections policy and in research on the subject. Accordingly, the "i" word, as well as other terms like "offender" and "prisoner" which we also avoid for the same reasons, feature prominently in much of the policy language you will find in our dataset.
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How to update this data:
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If you are using this spreadsheet after May 2024, we recommend checking agency websites or submitting records requests to ensure you have the most up-to-date policies.
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How to use this data:
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1)The actual data is in the "IWF Policy Data" sheet (second tab).
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2)Some cells contain a lot of text, so please be sure to double click to expand cells so you can read their entire contents.
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3)An "x" in a column means that we categorized that policy as containing the provision listed in that column's header. For example, an "x" in column F ("Revenue: Interest") means that IWF policy does permit applying interest accrued from individual trust accounts to welfare fund balances.
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4)Row 3 contains the total number of jurisdictions that had the policy provision assigned to that column. For example, policies in 15 jurisdictions permitted individual trust account interest as a revenue source for an IWF.
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5)Some jurisdictions have multiple funds, listed in column B, often broken out by revenue stream or intended use. For example, Arizona has an "Inmate Store Proceeds Fund" that runs on rent and commissions from commissary operators, as well as a "Special Services Fund" which runs on phone system revenue, kiosks, and tablets. Please note the number to the left of the fund's name, as we use that number in subsequent columns to indicate the fund from which the policy language originates. For example, Arizona's Store Proceeds Fund has a (1) in column B, and it's revenue streams (column E) are rent and commissions from commissary operations, which also has a (1) next to it.
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6)If a jurisdiction has "Untitled" in column B, that means we identified policy language that appeared to facilitate a welfare fund, but that fund was not given a specific name.
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How to cite this data:
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This document should be cited as Prison Policy Initiative, Prison system Inmate Welfare Fund policies by state (2024), accessed on [date] from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MJL3SWfYew6Q-it4mE7nO_91ofttNl-x/edit
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If you make any updates to this data, you should describe those updates in your citation.