Dialing with Dollars: How County Jails Profit From Immigrant Detainees

County jails charge excessive rates for phone usage – a huge barrier for immigrant detainees fighting deportation.

by Leticia Miranda

Arali was at home with her three-year-old son, Jose, when she got a call from Suffolk County Jail, a correctional facility about half an hour from her apartment in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her husband, Milton, was on the other end of the line. In tears, Milton explained to her that he had been detained after being in a car that was pulled over for a minor traffic violation.

Both Milton and Arali are undocumented immigrants from Guatemala. Milton migrated to the United States at twenty-one years old in 2005 following a hurricane that devastated his farm and much of Guatemala’s highland region, leaving him without a source of income to support his two children. Since then, Milton’s family back in Guatemala has been overwhelmed by the drug and gang-related violence that has ravaged the country over the last three decades. Drug traffickers recently killed Milton’s cousin. For Milton, deportation could mean risking death.

Milton, who prefers to use only his first name because of his open immigration case, was carpooling with ...

Los Angeles County Jail Exploits Prisoners, Families with High Phone Costs

by Derek Gilna

Officials with Los Angeles County’s jail system have been criticized by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky for exploiting prisoners and their families by charging excessive phone rates. “Everyone’s making a lot of money at the expense of inmates’ families,” Yaroslavsky said.

Prisoners’ rights advocates, including Prison Legal News, have cast a spotlight on exorbitant prison and jail phone costs for years, but reform has come much too slowly. [See: PLN, Dec. 2013, p.1; April 2011, p.1]. Meanwhile, county sheriff’s offices around the country have long enjoyed a steady revenue stream from inflated jail phone rates, including L.A. County.

According to a September 8, 2014 news report, under its current contract with phone service provider Global Tel*Link, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department receives 67.5% of the revenue generated from jail phone calls in “commission” kickbacks, with guaranteed minimum annual payments of $15 million. Global Tel, an Alabama-based company, provides the county’s jail system with about 5,000 pay phones.

One prisoner’s mother, Kim Iannone, said that after her son was arrested she received an automated call from the company requiring her to set up a prepaid account ...

Jail Video Visitation Proposal Considered in Dallas County, Texa

On September 9, 2014, the Dallas County Commissioners Court unanimously rejected a proposal that would have ended all face-to-face visits with prisoners at the Dallas County Jail. The Commissioners Court had been considering bids to equip the jail with a video visitation system. Prison phone service provider Securus Technologies appeared to have the edge on the contract; however, when the company submitted a plan that included the elimination of in-person visits at the jail, it met vigorous opposition from County Judge Clay Jenkins.

Judge Jenkins’ outspoken rejection of the plan was a rallying cry for a number of prisoners’ rights advocates, including Texas CURE, former state Rep. Terri Hodge and Richard Miles, a former Texas prisoner who was exonerated following a wrongful murder conviction. The Commissioners Court also received hundreds of emails and a petition with over 2,000 signatures objecting to Securus’ video visitation plan.

The company’s proposal included charging $10 for each 20-minute visit, and tried to sweeten the deal by offering the county a 25% commission on video visitation revenue. The Commissioners Court initially decided to table the issue and allow previous bidders to submit new bids based on ...

Prison and Jail Phone Reforms Needed in New Jersey

by Karina Wilkinson

Two prison phone service providers, Global Tel*Link and Securus, continue to overcharge prisoners and their families for calls made from prisons and jails in New Jersey. While federal regulations capped interstate (long distance) calls from correctional facilities beginning in February 2014, the State of New Jersey has allowed a grave injustice to continue by permitting companies to charge high rates and allowing county jails to accept commissions on in-state calls ranging from 50% to 70%. Such commissions amount to legal “kickbacks” that let phone companies share profits with state and local governments at the expense of those who can least afford it.

Prior to the Federal Communication Commission’s order capping interstate phone rates, charges of $.33 per minute from New Jersey state prisons and as high as $15.00 for 15-minute calls from county jails have translated to hundreds and even thousands of dollars of debt for prisoners and their families. New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees* and other advocacy groups have received reports of parents forgoing calls with their children because they couldn’t afford the cost.

“It is absolutely obscene that a private vendor can charge fees that ...

SEC Rejects CCA, GEO Group Shareholder Resolutions to Reduce Prison Phone Rates

On February 18, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted a request filed by for-profit prison company GEO Group to exclude a shareholder resolution that sought to reduce the high cost of phone calls made by prisoners at GEO-operated facilities. Ten days later, the SEC granted a request by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to exclude a similar shareholder resolution.

The resolutions, filed by Alex Friedmann, managing editor of PLN and associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), would have required the companies to forgo “commission” kickbacks from prison phone service providers. [See: PLN, Jan. 2014, p.44]. Such kickbacks are typically based on a percentage of revenue generated from inmate telephone services (ITS) – revenue that is mostly paid by prisoners’ families.

Specifically, the shareholder resolutions stated that GEO and CCA “shall not accept ITS commissions” at their facilities, and that when the companies contract with prison phone service providers they “shall give the greatest consideration to the overall lowest ITS phone charges among the factors [they consider] when evaluating and entering into ITS contracts.” CCA and GEO both filed no-action requests with the SEC ...

Louisiana Public Service Commission Considers Prison Phone Issues

The Advocate reported in March 2014 that tensions were high between Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) Chairman Eric Skrmetta and PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell during a hearing on issues related to prison and jail phone rates.

Previously, in December 2012, the PSC voted to lower the cost of phone calls made by Louisiana prisoners by cutting the rates of some calls by 25% and prohibiting surcharges. The ban on surcharges went into effect on February 28, 2013, while the rate reduction – which only applies to calls made to family members, clergy, attorneys and certain other parties – was postponed until 2014. [See: PLN, April 2013, p.29; Jan. 2013, p.14; Feb. 2012, p.36].

Two prison phone service providers, City Tele-Coin and Securus Technologies (which also has the phone contract for Louisiana’s state prison system), were subsequently cited by the PSC for contempt for charging additional fees in spite of the prohibition on surcharges.

Commissioner Campbell had championed the prison phone reforms, including the 25% rate reduction. City Tele-Coin and Securus have since petitioned the PSC to rescind the rate cut and ban on surcharges.

Additionally, City Tele-Coin hosted a fundraiser for PSC ...

Pay Tel Receives Waiver of Prison Phone Rate Caps

 

On January 8, 2014, Pay Tel Communications, a North Carolina company that provides phone services at correctional facilities in 13 states, filed a petition requesting a waiver of the rate caps on interstate (long distance) prison phone calls imposed by the Federal Communications Commission. The rate caps went into effect on February 11, 2014. [See: PLN, Feb. 2014, p.10].

As a result of longstanding efforts by prisoners, their family members and advocacy organizations (including the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice) against exorbitant prison and jail phone rates, the FCC ordered the rate caps and other reforms after examining the issue for almost a decade in a proceeding known as the Wright petition. The rate caps include a maximum of $.25 per minute for collect interstate calls and $.21 per minute for debit or prepaid interstate calls. [See: PLN, Dec. 2013, p.1].

The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau found that Pay Tel had “met its burden of proof to establish a good cause to grant a limited, temporary waiver of the Commission’s interim [prison phone] rate cap rule.” Accordingly, on February 11, 2014, Pay Tel received a nine-month “narrow waiver” ...

There are currently 2.2 million people held in prisons and jails in the United States,1 and an estimated 95% of prisoners currently in custody will one day be released. Based on 2012 data, around 637,400 people are released annually from state and federal prisons.2

According to an April 2011 report by the Pew Center on the States, the average national recidivism rate is 43.3%.3 Based on that average rate, an estimated 276,000 released prisoners can be expected to recidivate each year, many committing new crimes and returning to prison.

This negatively impacts our communities in several ways, including the societal costs of more crime and victimization as well as the fiscal costs of reincarcerating ex-prisoners who commit new offenses – at an average annual cost of $31,286 per prisoner, according to a 2012 report by the Vera Institute.4

Studies have consistently found that prisoners who maintain close contact with their family members while incarcerated have better post-release outcomes and lower recidivism rates.

These findings represent a body of research stretching back over 40 years. For example, according to “Explorations in Inmate-Family Relationships,” a 1972 study: “The central finding of this research is the strong and consistent positive relationship that exists ...

PLN’s December 2013 cover story provided an updated look at the prison phone industry and examined a recent order by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that imposed rate caps on interstate (long distance) prison and jail phone calls. There have since been several new developments on the prison phone front.

As previously reported, the nation’s two largest Inmate Calling Service (ICS) providers, Global Tel*Link and Securus Technologies, filed legal challenges to the FCC’s order in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

On January 13, 2014, the appellate court ruled on Securus’ motion for a stay of the FCC’s order, granting the motion in part and denying it in part. As a result, several key provisions of the order were placed on hold pending the outcome of Securus’ lawsuit.

The interim rate caps imposed by the FCC – $.25 per minute for collect interstate ICS calls and $.21 per minute for debit and prepaid interstate ICS calls – were not stayed and went into effect on February 11, 2014. As of that date, all correctional facilities nationwide were required to comply with the rate caps.

In addition to the rate caps for interstate prison phone calls, the D.C. Circuit also declined ...

On November 26, 2013, shareholder resolutions were filed with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. – the nation’s two largest for-profit prison companies; the resolutions seek to reduce the high cost of phone calls made by prisoners at CCA and GEO facilities nationwide.

Prison phone rates are typically much higher than non-prison rates, and a 15-minute call can cost up to $17.30. Such exorbitant costs make it difficult for prisoners to maintain regular contact with their families and children; an estimated 2.7 million children in the United States have an incarcerated parent.

In September 2013, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order capping the cost of interstate (long distance) prison phone calls. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn observed that “Studies have shown that having meaningful contact beyond prison walls can make a real difference in maintaining community ties, promoting rehabilitation, and reducing recidivism. Making these calls more affordable can facilitate all of these objectives and more.” However, the FCC’s order has not yet gone into effect and does not apply to in-state prison phone rates. [See: PLN, Dec. 2013, p.1].

Therefore, Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), PLN’s parent non-profit organization, filed ...