The Department shall accept monies generated by commissions on telephone services, commissary sales, and sales of approved items not available on commissary by the Department to inmates at its correctional facilities and shall establish with such monies an inmate recreation special fund. The fund shall be used to provide postage to inmates in a manner consistent with Department policy. The fund may be used for costs associated with the oversight and accounting of inmate cash accounts. The fund may be used, at the discretion of the Commissioner, to hire persons or purchase services, equipment, and goods to establish or enhance recreation activities for inmates confined in any of the Department's facilities, and for voluntary inmate contributions that promote the restoration of crime victims or communities. The inmates, through a process established by the inmate recreation fund committee, may also choose to create a loan fund, the operation of which shall be governed by rules adopted pursuant to 3 V.S.A. chapter 25, from which offenders may borrow in order to help them obtain housing upon release from incarceration. (Added 1997, No. 155 (Adj. Sess.), § 17; amended 1999, No. 152 (Adj. Sess.), § 102a; 2001, No. 61, § 80, eff. July 1, 2002; 2001, No. 61, § 81, eff. July 1, 2005; 2001, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 172; 2003, No. 66, § 169; 2005, No. 71, § 145; 2005, No. 215 (Adj. Sess.), § 161a, eff. May 31, 2006.)