The High Cost of Phone Calls in Prisons Generates $1 4 Billion a Year, Disproportionately Driving Women and People of Color Into Debt businessinsider.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessinsider.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With the purchase of every $7 phone call and overpriced pack of ramen noodles, people held at the El Paso County jail are chipping away at the jail’s mental health
With the purchase of every $7 phone call and overpriced pack of ramen noodles, people held at the El Paso County jail are chipping away at the jail’s mental health care bill a seemingly novel spin on cost-cutting that critics say is unethical and possibly illegal.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the office dips into proceeds from jail commissary and phone services to defray expenses from its private medical services contract. Since 2019, the office has spent nearly $1.8 million from the so-called inmate commissary fund to pay down its health services contract, earmarking the spending for mental health, according to figures the office provided to The Gazette.
Prisoners and their families victims of a government slush fund By
May 22, 2021
Michigan prison inmates who want to phone home must pay 16 cents per minute, a rate that far exceeds what is now considered reasonable and customary outside prisons. Some people familiar with the system say the state unfairly makes a profit from prisoners and has created a related slush fund that should be terminated.
Global Tel-Link is the company contracted by the Michigan Department of Corrections to install and maintain phone equipment in prisons. Under the contract, the firm must record and store prisoner conversations, and analyze them to ensure no illegal activity is discussed.
FCC approves plan to make some phone calls cheaper for inmates and their families
Inmates make collect phone calls at a jail in Orange County, California, in 2011. Photo by H. Lorren Au Jr./MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images.
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to make phone calls more affordable for people in prisons or jails by approving a plan to reduce out-of-state call rates by at least one-third.
The FCC capped at 12 cents per minute the rate for prison calls and 14 cents per minute the rates in larger jails. Interstate rate caps were previously set at 21 cents per minute for debit and prepaid calls from prisons and jails with more than 1,000 inmates, according to an FCC proposal.