SJC Exchange Library

A Prison Policy Initiative report making the case for focusing on the high cost of calling home from jails. While the rates in prisons have largely come down, jails are lagging behind, with many calls still costing $1/minute or more. In many states, the typical jail call is three, five or even 50 times more expensive than a call from state prisons.

The report explains that:

• Phone providers compete for jail contracts by offering sheriffs large portions of the revenue – and then charge exorbitant phone rates.
• Providers exploit sheriffs’ lack of experience with telecommunications contracts to slip in hidden fees that fleece consumers.
• State legislators, regulators and governors pay little attention to jails, even as they continue to lower the cost of calls home from state prisons.

• A sortable table of the cost of phone calls in jails nationwide, as well as the provider each jail contracts with;
• A table comparing the cost of prison phone calls in each state to the cost of jail phone calls;
• Explanations of two specific profit-making tricks used by jail phone providers, which target the very poorest consumers at their moments of crisis (with explanatory comics by illustrator Kevin Pyle);
• A timeline showing how the two largest phone providers, Securus and GTL, are locking facilities into perpetual contracts by buying up their competitors.

• Why expensive phone calls can be life-altering for people in jail - and can derail the justice process -- The movement for phone justice has won huge victories in state-run prisons, but people in jail pretrial are on the front lines of exploitation.
• On kickbacks and commissions in the prison and jail phone market -- Phone providers are so creative in their influence-peddling that the most viable reform strategies do not focus only on “commissions.”
• Timeline: The 18-year battle for prison phone justice -- Journalists and others often ask about how the movement for phone justice began and why this is taking so long. Here are the key dates.