Posted on 04/23/2013 6:30:01 PM PDT by smoothsailing
April 23, 2013
The Congressional Black Caucus Working Group on Prison Telecomm Reform is protesting high call costs for phone-homers behind bars.
The CBC group will hold a press conference with former inmates and family members “to expose the often exorbitant rates that prisoners and their families are being charged for telephone calls and to announce the CBC response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to resolve the issue after more than a decade of delay,” according to D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D) office.
Prison calling rates can be as much as $4 per-call plus a 55-cents per-minute charge
CBC Chairwoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) will be joined by the original plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, Martha Wright, a District resident who will speak along with her grandson, Ulandis Forte, a former inmate. Forte finished an 18-year sentence for murder in June.
Other members of the task force in addition to Norton are Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.), John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).
“D.C. residents are incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), where the rates are high but not nearly as high as in many state prisons,” said Norton. “Extensive evidence has long established the direct correlation between communication with relatives and others in an inmate’s support system and success in reintegration into civil society. Our working group’s investigation of this issue, reflected in our comments released today, shows that only a national remedy from the FCC can mitigate the harm to society, inmates and their families alike.”
D.C. Code felons are transported and incarcerated throughout the country, and therefore forced to pay interstate phone call rates that are often significantly higher than the already high intrastate rates that residents of the 50 states generally pay, she said.
I agree....and I get paid to put em in the klink...no reason for the prisoners to have to pay those rates....lower the phone rates and raise the sentencing!
I agree. Everyone should be able to call the Communist Black Caucus peckerheads for a dime or less.
When you’re right, you’re right - no matter who you are or how wrong you might be about everything else. There is no excuse for overcharging inmates and their families for phone calls, and you can rest assured that well-connected white collar criminals are making a fortune off those prison phone contracts.
This is PUNISHMENT for a Crime; not life-of-luxury accommodations, for Crisake......
“Almost never agree with the Congressional Black Caucus on anything, but the prices for prisoners to call family and friends are criminal.”
Also agree with you.
Likewise, the plans in place where a prisoner can make a collect call to family members are also criminal. It’s not free enterprise in any way, shape or form. It’s a form of robbery.
Agreed.
Almost never agree with the Congressional Black Caucus on anything, but the prices for prisoners to call family and friends are criminal.
Go to jail. Find out. Won’t happen to you, right?
Prison isn’t supposed to be a vacation resort.
If you don’t like the conditions in prison, don’t do the crimes that put you there.
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