Prison Phone Justice

TELEPHONE; STATISTICAL INFORMATION; PRISONS AND PRISONERS;
LITIGATION; CORRECTIONS;
PRISONS AND PRISONERS;

June 26, 2003

2003-R-0469
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION ISSUES
By: Kevin E. McCarthy, Principal Analyst

You asked for a comparison of the number of inmates per
correctional counselor in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York,
and Rhode Island. You also asked (1) whether other states make a
profit from inmate telephone calls, as Connecticut does; (2) how
Connecticut s cost for incarceration compares to that for other
states; and (3) what other states have done to reduce the incidence
of frivolous lawsuits by inmates.
SUMMARY
The Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) currently has
20,834 inmates and employs 513 counselors (40. 6 inmates per
counselor). Massachusetts has 10,020 inmates and 357
counselors (28. 1 inmates per counselor), New York has 65,907
inmates and 649 counselors (36 of whom are employed by the
Office of Mental Health and who work in DOC s intermediate care
facilities) or 101. 6 inmates per counselor. Rhode Island has 3,546
inmates and 33 counselors, or 107. 4 inmates per counselor.
It appears that most states use inmate telephone calls as a source
of revenue as Connecticut does, by imposing a significant state
surcharge on top of the actual cost of the calls. Connecticut s cost
of incarceration for adult inmates is higher than the national
average, but well below several other Northeastern states. Among
the ways that other states have tried to limit frivolous lawsuits by
inmates are penalizing inmates that file such suits through such
means as reducing their good time and by increasing the costs of
filing civil suits. While we have found no studies on the

effectiveness of such measures at the state level, one study of
similar policies in the federal prison system found that they
substantially reduced the number of inmate lawsuits.
INMATE TELEPHONE CALLS
Most other states have policies that impose surcharges on inmate
telephone calls, generally in the 40% to 50% range according to the
Equitable Telephone Charges Campaign, an advocacy group that
has been involved with inmate telephone policies. It appears that
Nebraska is the only state that does not impose a surcharge.
Most states, including Connecticut, limit the types of calls that
inmates can place or receive, often requiring inmates to make
collect calls. OLR memo 2000-R-0708 describes Connecticut s
policy in more detail. Several states, including Colorado, Indiana,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, have begun allowing
inmates to use debit accounts to make phone calls, which can
substantially reduce the cost of the calls. By law Connecticut DOC
must establish, by June 3, 2004, a pilot program allowing the use
of debit accounts at a correctional facility selected by DOC.
COST OF INCARCERATION
Table 1 presents the average daily costs of adult incarceration for
the 44 states for which data readily available (data is not available
from California, Hawaii, Kentucky, New Mexico, Vermont, and
Wisconsin). Connecticut s cost of $ 72. 91 is above the $ 64. 64
average for these states. On the other hand, the cost of housing a
prisoner in Connecticut is substantially below the costs in
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. On a
national level, incarceration costs in the Northeast and Midwest
are generally higher than in the South and West, which is
consistent with trends for labor and other costs.
Table 1: Average Daily 2002 Cost of Incarceration
Per Adult State Inmate
State
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona

Average Daily
Cost ($ )
26. 07
114. 37
53. 44

Arkansas

42. 59

Colorado

77. 31
Continued-

State

Average Daily
Cost ($ )

Connecticut

72. 91

Delaware

60. 39

Florida

48. 13

Georgia

48. 44

Idaho

55. 33

Illinois

63. 65

Indiana

57. 44

Iowa

61. 74

Kansas

54. 14

Louisiana

33. 68

Maine

92. 84

Maryland

61. 48

Massachusetts

116. 87

Michigan

79. 83

Minnesota

70. 23

Mississippi

38. 10

Missouri

35. 78

Nebraska

62. 33

Nevada

50. 54

N. Hampshire

68. 12

New Jersey

76. 13

New York

96. 73

North Carolina

65. 29

North Dakota

52. 83

Ohio

59. 93

Oklahoma

46. 14

Oregon

62. 42

Pennsylvania

80. 83

Rhode Island

100. 13

South Carolina

34. 54

South Dakota

31. 63

Tennessee

47. 62

Texas

43. 63

Utah

68. 32

Virginia

57. 34

Washington

71. 13

West Virginia

47. 47

Wyoming

86. 58

Source: 2003 Directory, The American Correctional Association

FRIVOLOUS INMATE LAWSUITS
Inmates in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas can
lose good time credits for frivolous and malicious suits. Texas
requires that an inmate be docked six months of good-time credit if
he files four or more lawsuits within a year that a court declares to
be without merit.
Another approach states have taken is to increase the costs
imposed on inmates for filing suits. Under recent laws in at least
10 states, fees are now being imposed on some civil actions filed by
prisoner. Kentucky, for example, requires partial filing fees and
court costs for suits filed, and provides that an inmate s status is
not a presumption of impoverishment. Mississippi makes inmates
pay all costs of suits dismissed as frivolous; and California
requires prison and jail inmates to pay full court costs for forma
pauperis civil actions. New York requires non-indigent inmates to
pay the full filing fee, approximately $ 250, for suits in state courts
and requires indigent inmates to pay a fee of $ 15 to $ 50. An
inmate must also exhaust all administrative remedies before filing
in the Court of Claims to seek recovery of damages for injury to or
loss of personal property. The fee for filing in the Court of Claims is
$ 50, or between $ 15 and $ 50 for indigent inmates.
Some of the information in this report is derived from a National
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) report on the topic,
which is available on NCSL s Website, http: //www. ncsl.
org/programs/cj/cjl3297. htm.

We have found one study of the effectiveness of related federal law.
The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) was aimed at reducing
frivolous or malicious prisoner petitions, filed by federal inmates,
primarily those concerning civil rights and prison conditions. It
established mandatory filing fees, restrictions on filing successive
petitions, and requirements for exhausting administrative remedies
before filing petitions. It also increased the ability of courts to
dismiss immediately any petition that is frivolous, malicious, fails
to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or seeks
monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief.
According to a 1999 Department of Justice study, filings of civil
rights prisoner petitions dropped 20% from 1996 (when the act
went into effect) to 1997, then fell 12% from 1997 to 1998. The
number of filings spiked intermittently after 1996, but levels
continue to be below pre-PLRA enactment levels.
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