Posted on 10/21/2015 4:32:08 PM PDT by markomalley
Are inmates in state and federal prisons charged too much to make a phone call? The Federal Communications Commission thinks they are.
On Oct. 22, the telecommunications regulator is expected to impose strict new caps on how much convicts can be charged for making phone calls from the big house. In so doing, the agency will (once again) be overstepping its bounds, overriding policy decisions set by those who actually run the prisons.
There is little doubt that making a phone call from prison can be expensive, with per minute rates of up to 89 cents, according to the FCC, not counting various per call fees that can be tacked on.
Thus, a fifteen minute phone call could cost over $13, compared to less than a dollar on the outside.
A Lack of Competition
The FCC blames the cost on a lack of competition, a fact that is blindingly obvious. Inmates are the ultimate captive customers, and competition is kept away by literal barriers to entry. But the gatekeepers in this marketplace are not the phone companies – it is the corrections officials themselves.
Prison authorities typically grant exclusive licenses to specialized firms that manage phone systems for correctional facilities. A big share of the revenue – as much as 96 percent — then goes back to the prisons, through fees due from these firms. In part, this money helps to offset the security costs to wardens of providing phone calls to inmates, ranging from call monitoring to providing escorts for repairmen. Much, however, is typically used to fund general prison operations and programs.
Prisoner rights activists have long denounced this system. By treating inmate phone calls as a cash cow, prisoners are discouraged from staying in contact with friends and family in the outside world. The resulting isolation, they argue, makes it harder for them to integrate into society when they are released.
FCC Regulations Are Not a Solution
Finding this argument persuasive, the FCC imposed interim caps on interstate phone rates in 2013. On Thursday, permanent – and broader – regulations will be voted on.
The new rules will apply to in-state as well as interstate calls, and lower the average cost of a 15-minute call to $1.65. The costs of this reduction, however, will be borne by the prison system, and ultimately the taxpayers, who will have fewer resources for other priorities.
This issue involves the sort of trade-off weighed every day by policymakers in deciding how to use the resources at their disposal. But in this case, the decision is not being made by those responsible for running prisons or ensuring that ex-convicts are successfully and safely re-integrated into society. Nor is it being made by legislators accountable to the people.
Instead, the decision is being made by the unelected members of the FCC, an agency with no expertise – or accountability – for prison management.
The regulators at the FCC have a disturbing habit of expanding their own jurisdiction (having asserted regulatory control over the Internet only this February).
That expansion should be stopped outside the prison walls.
Great post (43). It’s amazing the ignorance of prison threats in the other posts.
Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow inmates to vote.
As the article makes clear, however,the amount of money being collected is far higher than the expenses of operating the system, and is being used for general prison funding.
Yes, it costs more than providing phone service to the homes of law abiding citizens who pay their own bills. Providing phone service to prisoners requires added security measures. That costs money. Phone calls and prison security are not naturally occurring phenomena. They don’t simply exist for free, like rainbows. Somebody has to work to provide them, and somebody has to pay for them. I’m not understanding the push to prevent the convicted criminals from paying for the luxuries they demand. They’re convicted criminals. We don’t owe them. They owe us.
"A big share of the revenue – as much as 96 percent — then goes back to the prisons, through fees due from these firms. In part, this money helps to offset the security costs to wardens of providing phone calls to inmates, ranging from call monitoring to providing escorts for repairmen. Much, however, is typically used to fund general prison operations and programs."So clearly all of the costs inherent in a prison phone system, including the added security required, is being covered and there's still a large amount of money left over that is being diverted by the prisons into other uses, essentially boosting the prison budget on the backs of the prisoners.
Look up offset in the dictionary. It doesn’t mean all. Part of the money is used to pay part of the added costs of the phone calls. Part of the money pays part of other prison related costs. In other words, the monies are mingled.
The article doesn’t state whether the money charged for phone calls is greater than, equal to, or less than the costs. In all likelihood, it’s about equal.
All of the money goes toward running the prison, which just happens to house the prisoners. So I’m still not feeling any pity for the criminals, and I still don’t think the taxpayers and/or paying telephone customers should have to subsidize phone calls and/or other luxuries for criminals.
Hey, maybe we can start charging families for the food their loved ones get in prison!
Because they would die without phone calls? Obviously I’m not following your leap of logic.
I NEVER felt that way, I was in the juvenile system and could tell who was and wasn't going to make it on the outside. I had kids who were honor students at private schools and kids who had no concept of education at all. Fortunately, for them, The state of Indiana had these malcontents in a schoolroom every week day, and the truancy level was 0. Amazingly, once these tough guys HAD to go to school, they were amazingly capable and did quite well. The state then mandated that they get their GED degrees, actually had a graduation ceremony, and 99% of the kids loved it.....We had many come back, who had been released, to participate in the graduation even though the state would have mailed them their certificates....VERY rewarding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe if I'd worked with juveniles, I would have felt differently, but the ones we had in the prison system, had already been to juvie, and had previous criminal charges, probation, jail and prison time. School and occupational programs were an option, but many took that route because it looked good on their record when it came time for parole hearings. It's called playing the system. Go along to get along.
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