Prison Phone Justice

No. 08-085
August 4, 2008

ALASKA INMATES TO BE CHARGED FOR LOCAL CALLS
JUNEAU – Beginning September 1, prisoners in Alaska’s correctional
facilities will be charged $2 to make a local telephone call. Until now,
local calls have been free.
Prisoners being booked will not be charged to place a local phone call.
In March, the Department of Corrections approved a contract for inmate
telephone service with Evercom Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Securus Technologies, Inc.
Under contract terms, Evercom/Securus owns, installs and maintains
the telephone equipment at no cost to the department and provides
specialized equipment needed to record and track all phone
conversations for security purposes. Evercom/Securus also provides
billing service and the ability to block phone numbers as required by the
courts or by the recipients of calls.
The $2 fee will appear on the phone bill of the receiving party. The
contractor has a pre-pay account service for call recipients as well.
The department at first issued an RFP for telephone service which
required the successful bidder to provide free local calls for inmates.
After receiving no responsive bids, the department issued an RFP without
the free local calls stipulation. Evercom/Securus was the only bidder.
“The context of how we got here is cost control. The contractor owns,
installs and maintains the phone system used by inmates. For that
service they get a portion of the revenue phone calls generate,” said
deputy commissioner Dwayne Peeples. “We’d prefer to keep the free local
calls, but this is the industry norm and we’ve held off as best we could.”

Inmate telephone rates are approved by the Regulatory Commission of
Alaska.
The department inaugurated contracting for inmate telephone service in
May, 1997.
Most, if not all, correctional facilities charge for local calls. Among unified
systems (state corrections departments which, like Alaska, operate pretrial jails as well as prisons), Delaware and Connecticut charge $2 for a
local call, New Hampshire $1.10 plus 10 cents per minute, and Maryland
85 cents per minute.
Arkansas charges its inmates $4.40 in-state for 15 minutes, Rhode
Island 70 cents per minute, North Dakota 50 cents for 15 minutes,
Montana $2.75 plus 20 cents per minute, Wyoming $1.24, New Jersey
$2.50 for 15 minutes, Idaho $3.40 to $3.80 for 30 minutes, Mecklenburg
County (Charlotte, NC) Sheriffs Dept. $1.10 for 15 minutes. Prisoners in
Great Britain are charged around 22 cents per minute according to
recent report on the BBC news web site.

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