Captive audiences: prisoners pay exorbitant rates for phone calls

Some authorities receive fifty percent "commissions"

It is disturbing to know that some local prisoners and their families are subjected to astonishingly high rates for telephone and video calls.

The Prisoner Policy Initiative states: “At a time when the cost of a typical phone call is approaching zero, people behind bars in the U.S. are often forced to pay astronomical rates to call their loved ones or lawyers. Why? Because phone companies bait prisons and jails into charging high phone rates in exchange for a share of the revenue.” (1)

Unfortunately, governmental efforts to curb phone abuses have been limited by jurisdictional issues.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is attempting to bring down state prison and local jail phone rates, but at present can only regulate interstate calls — not intrastate or local ones. (2)

Many people in county and municipal jails (as opposed to state prisons) are there awaiting either trial or release on bond. They have not been convicted of anything.

It is imperative that jailers, in particular, reform their telephone practices and procedures. We cannot condone the financial exploitation of people who are, as a matter of law, presumed to be innocent.

Sources:

(1) https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice.html

(2) https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-335984A1.pdf