One of the key factors of successful reentry is maintaining contact with ones family during incarceration. Prisons are often located in rural areas far from an inmates home. Visits can be few and far between. While letter writing is always an option, ask any prisoner, it does not take the place of a face to face visit or the sound of a loved one’s voice.
As it is for those outside of prison walls, being able to speak to a spouse or child is crucial for prisoners. Prisoners and their families are not excluded from family crises including illness, death, marital ups and downs and all the associated problems that come with being a parent. In this day of social networking and cell phones, imagine, if you will, not being able to reach a loved one in the event of an emergency. Telephones are a lifeline, especially to prisoners.
While phones are available for prisoners to use, the cost of a phone call is often so costly that most prisoners and their families cannot afford them. One of the reason the calls are so expensive is that states are offered huge kickbacks from telephone service providers in order to secure lucrative contracts from corrections departments. The kickbacks are called “commissions,” but a rose is a rose. An extensive investigation by Prison Legal News has exposed the unholy alliance that has collateral consequences for prisoners and their families. Since prisoner often call collect, the obscene telephone rates bleed families.
PLN reports:
42 states accept kickbacks from phone service providers
Kickbacks average 42% of gross revenue ($152 million in 2007-2008)
The kickbacks can be as high as 60% of prison phone revenue
Phone contracts are most often based on the biggest kickbacks, rather than the lowest phone rates
The highest phone rate for a local call is $6.20 for a 15 minute collect call (Colorado)
The highest priced intrastate phone call is $14.30 for a 15 minute collect call (Oregon, which also has the highest long distance price - $18.30 for a 15 minute collect call)
Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Michigan, South Carolina, Missouri and California do not take kickbacks from their prison telephone service providers. New Hampshire, Kansas and Arkansas cut their kickbacks, and Montana has a limited kickback contract implemented in 2010.
States that no longer accept kickbacks, or have cut them, have seen a dramatic decrease in phone rates. In New York phone rates dropped 69% California, Montana and Kansas saw a drop of 61%, 64.5% and 40%, respectively.
Prison Legal News, along with Thousand Kites, a prison reform advocacy group, has set up a toll-free number for families of prisoners to share their thoughts on the high cost of maintaining phone contact with loved ones. The numbers is 877.518.0606. Also, recordings of the families’ stories can be heard click here to go to website .
There are several phone service providers that continue to gouge prisoners and their families via kickbacks. Unisys, Securus and Global Tel*Link are three of them. Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm, partly owns Global Tel*Link. The delicious irony, say some families of prisoners, is that some of the potential indictees in the Goldman Sachs sub prime mortgage scandal might be using a kickback-based phone provider for several months or years if convicted.
To view the complete PLN report click here to go to website
Sources: Prison Legal News, CURE
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