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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

A Mother's Day “Hangup” For Prisoners? Report Details "Price-Gouging"

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Friday, May 11, 2012   

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – This weekend, Florida prison inmates who call their moms on Mother's Day will pay at least $1.20 per minute for long distance calls.

Prison phone rates vary widely from state to state but, in general, they burden families trying to provide support for incarcerated loved ones. That's the view of Lee Petro, a Washington, D.C., lawyer and expert on prison telephone service contracts. At issue, he says, are monopolies that benefit phone companies and give commissions or "kickbacks" to state governments.

"In states where there are preexisting contracts that involve commissions that are being paid to the local governments, a 15-minute phone call can cost more than $20."

Historically, high rates have been rationalized by the need to monitor jailhouse calls. Advocates say better technology has brought those costs down, although inmates and their families continue to pay exorbitant rates.

Steven Renderos with the Center for Media Justice is an organizer of today's Mother's Day of Action. He says the website PhoneJustice.org, is collecting stories about prisoners and families affected by the high-cost phone calls.

"We're going to send those stories directly to the FCC, because the Federal Communications Commission has a direct role to play in addressing the rates of phone calls within prison."

High prison phone prices end up driving a wedge between inmates and their families, adds Petro – which, in the long run, burdens society.

"You know, it's a proven fact, over and over again, that the level of contact they had while they were in prison - with their family and their social network - renders their reentry into society more beneficial, more stable, and they are less likely to commit crime down the line."

Advocates for reforming the prison phone system also say the problem affects those hardest pressed to cope with it. They point out that, of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in America, nearly 40 percent are black and nearly 20 percent are Latino.



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