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COVID Froze Prison Visits, Spotlighting High Cost of Phone Calls
A person makes a call from a jail in New York City, which in 2019 became the first major U.S. city to offer free phone calls for incarcerated people. More states and localities are considering reducing or eliminating the cost of calls in prisons and jails.
Julie Jacobson
The Associated Press
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Judi Jennings regularly led arts and crafts events in the visitors lobby at the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in Kentucky.
It wasn’t until in-person visits were suspended last year that Jennings realized how much it costs for people in jail to talk to those outside: around $5 for a 15-minute call to some local landlines, $9.99 for a 15-minute call to a cellphone.
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The pandemic isolated incarcerated people. Kentucky and Securus cashed in. The Department of Corrections made at least $3.2 million last year off of incarcerated people’s phone calls, financial records obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting have revealed.
by Jared Bennett |
July 14, 2021
For over 460 days, as the pandemic shut down visitation across the state, incarcerated people and their loved ones relied on the prison system’s costly phone calls and emails.
The Kentucky Department of Corrections and Securus Technologies reaped big rewards.
Records show the Department of Corrections made at least $3.2 million last year off phone calls that cost the loved ones of incarcerated people up to 25 cents per minute.
The Pandemic Isolated Incarcerated People Kentucky And Securus Cashed In
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