A Proposal to Address the Cost of Collect Phone Calls

[Ken]

I recently wrote to Senator Wayne Goode of the state of Missouri regarding the work that he and Senator Larry Rohrbach did to reduce the cost of collect calls to Prisoner families.

The response is further below…

This response does not provide us with a lot of information as to how to go about fighting the high cost of collect phone calls, but it does shed some light on the situation. It also shows that if a stand is taken then you can win the battle if not the war. This Senator was able to drive the cost of collect calls down by approximately 30%. This is significant.

I read in many studies that as the length of incarceration increases for any one Prisoner that the frequency of calls and letters decline. This may be due to the fact that relationships do naturally decline with length of incarceration or/and it may be also due to the cost of keeping in contact. It pains me when I read on this community and others the number of people that are struggling to pay phone bills and the hassle that they have in keeping a phone line open. Studies on recidivism show that the successful reentry of a Prisoner to free society is impacted positively with strong relationships between the Prisoner and family, friends and significant others. These relationships depend on phone calls, letters and visits. For many visits are limited because of distance and cost to travel. For many phone calls are prohibitively expensive. For some mail is held and not distributed in a timely manner. (I don’t want this post to branch out past the phone issue, but all forms of contact with Prisoners can be compromised at times depending on the situation)

What I propose to do is to research and produce statistics and facts from studies that have been commissioned to show that positive contact with family members has a positive affect on Prisoner reentry. With these statistics and facts in hand I will then compose a letter that could be sent to all levels of government. This letter could be handed out in the waiting rooms of the Prisons so that we get the participation of non-PTO people too. We can send the letter to our Prisoners and ask them to circulate and have other Prisoners send it home to their families to mail out. Heck, we can even have our Prisoners mail a copy! Everyone involved in PTO can send a letter to each and every state government official that we feel could have an impact – sending the letter to your own state government and all other state governments too.

I am proposing that a letter writing campaign with cold hard facts that support why and how phone contact will benefit society at large by positively influencing reentry, will have a cost benefit to each state in reduced re-offense/recidivism admissions to prison. Certainly there are other factors that influence recidivism but this is one that I personally believe is overlooked. (Or this is the proposed stand that I would like to take – it may change after significant research is done but I think not.) Also that overall this will increase the morale of Prisoners and their families.

I am not saying that I do not agree with boycotts, but I am of the opinion that a boycott will NOT have the desired result in this case. Boycotts work when the company being boycotted is negatively affected by the boycott. The only people in my mind that are negatively affected by a prison phone boycott is the Prisoner and the family. The long distance carriers will be affected but not for long and they are milking the system through us anyway so 30 days here or there will not change there situaion and they know that we have no choice but to return to receiving calls at their rates! The DOC's will not care and if anything may just irritate them enough to cause us more grief. I think that boycotts of such a nature show that we can in fact go periods of time without calls from our Prisoners and from my knowledge have not produced positive results in the past. I believe that we have to find government officials that will buy into our reasoning and push the issue that way to produce a positive result.

I do not have a specific time frame for completing this project but I hope to have the research completed and a letter composed to share with the PTO community in the next 30 days.

In the mean time, I am looking for help from all members. Would you please post on this thread specific costs associated with receiving calls from prisons around the country? I will need to collect this information in advance. Please ensure that you name the state that the Prisoner is calling from and the state that you are receiving the call in. Please also include if there are restrictions on phone use – such as so many minutes per day/week/month etc. I am only really trying to impact cost but would be interested to know and possibly include restrictions too. Please do not forward costs if you are using a remote call forwarding system or a service that provides this service. These costs are not relevant to the cause.

Let’s build a campaign with a positive attitude and see if we can affect change! As a “Team” – Together Everyone Achieves More.

This is the response from Senator Wayne Goode in Missouri…

Thank you for your email of September 28th. Your questions and comments regarding the phone system for inmates of the Department of Corrections are appreciated. The Department of Corrections, like most similar institutions, historically provided pay phones that allowed inmates to make collect calls, as they are not allowed to have any form of money. With telecommunications deregulation various providers brought modernized systems to the market. Under the normal procurement system through the Office of Administration bids were solicited based on an RFP (Request for Proposal). In compliance with purchasing laws and rules and regulations it is the duty of the state to take the lowest and best bid, which in the case of Corrections telephone services meant the provider that would produce the most revenue for the state. The significant amount of money that the state was making off of the families of inmates came to our attention during the appropriations hearings process. Senator Larry Rohrbach and I both took the position, standard purchasing requirements notwithstanding, the state had a duty to allow inmates to maintain contacts with their families at a reasonable cost. After a period of input and negotiations the Department of Corrections and the Office of Administration agreed to re-bid the contract so that the state would only recover the overall costs of maintaining and managing the telephone system. The cost to inmate families was significantly reduced, however, it is still higher on a per minute basis than an individual consumer can obtain in the competitive market.

[Cameo]

Wow what an excellent thought and project. This is very close to my own 'research proposal' I am doing for one of my classes. I'm focussing more on the importance of the availibility of Social Support to inmates. It was my view that when prisoners are sanctioned, 'charged' or 'ticketed' --punishment is in the loss of visits or phone calls. Maintaining phone contact and having personal visits is very important to the inmates adjustment to prison life.
I'm also submitting information that the high costs of phone calls also reduces the opportunities of inmates to keep in touch with their family.

So in a nutshell-- I will assist you in anyway I can!


My phone calls are: 10.11 cents per 15 minutes.

$2.45 to connect and then .45 per minute. Plus, thanks to our great President Clinton (not) there is an additional .09 federal tax per minute.

I just found this out 2 weeks ago...it's crazy! From what I found out, all inmate calls have this .09 extra charge. What I don't understand is that there is that additional state and federal charge at the end of your phone bill.

When I have time, I'm going to look more into this. How can we be being charge two federal taxes? One on the minute and then another at the end of the bill?

I'll make sure to keep up often with this thread!

Thanks again for the great idea!

[Soul SLiver]

Teb...I wish I could be of some help here...I can only give you information that I've heard from some people I've met at the facility I go to. Generally calls instate are costing anywhere from $7 for 15 minutes to $15 for 15 minutes. Most of the ladies I've spoken to about it live within a 250 mile radius of the facility. A few live in Mexico and unfortunately I do not understand espanol, otherwise I could give you international rates.

[egs]

If you have not done so already, you may want to join the on-going and well established nationwide campaign to reform prisoner phone systems. It is called eTc [Equitable Phone Charges], an initiative sponsored by CURE [Citizens United for the Rehabilitiation of Errants]. You can find out more information by going to the CURE National website. This phone campaign, established about 3 years ago, has all kinds of initiatives going on and they also have packets of information that can be used by State groups to educate others, to learn how to get the political process going in your state, etc..... They have enjoyed success in varying degrees in several states already! There IS power in numbers!!!
CURE eTc website is:http://www.curenational.org/~etc/

[bella]

Currently I pay 5.40 for 15 minutes. when he was in NYC and I was here in Florida it cost $11.00 for 15 minutes for the first month. Then Sprint changes the rate and it cost $17.44 for 15 minutes.

I you need any help, please let me know. Inmates maintaining ontact is such a vital part of thier lives and ours!