The funds held more than $19 million at the end of 2024 but receive no scrutiny from lawmakers.

Some Michigan inmates say that despite large balances in the funds intended to help them, they can't afford to buy essential items.

LANSING — Joshua Alger says he usually has no money to buy an envelope to mail a letter from his Michigan prison cell, and the Michigan Department of Corrections won't give him one.

At the same time, records the Detroit Free Press obtained through Michigan's Freedom of Information Act show the department controls about $19 million in "Prisoner Benefit Funds," which receive a share of the money inmates and their loved ones spend on prison store items, phone calls, and messages sent through the prison email system.

The funds, which spend tens of thousands of dolla

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