a public defender

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Costs of calls to inmates are high - up to $17 for 15 minutes - but the money earned by the state through this feature does not pay for much of anything in the Department of Correction itself.

Nearly five years after The Courant reported that little or no revenue generated by high-priced prison pay-phone calls has been funneled back to the prisons, Connecticut has continued the practice by spending much of it on state telecommunications, including computer tracking systems for law enforcement. Prisoner advocates say that in doing so, the state is balancing its budget on the backs of the inmates’ families, who tend to be among the poor and vulnerable.

Senator McDonald, the co-chair of the Judiciary Committee called it “a state-sponsored scam” and said it was “an outrageous intrusion on the rights of families with people in prison”. He thinks the money is better spent on re-entry programs.

Given that there is no more gate pay in Connecticut and re-entry and re-assimilation programs are…well…not very good, I agree that the State needs to spend more money on ensuring that released inmates have skills necessary to lead the good life and the support that is needed to achieve that. Whether that money comes from the “phone call fund” or some other source, I don’t really care.

Here are some of the stats:

Since 2001, the state has reaped $32.7 million from a contract the state Department of Information Technology holds with MCI, now Verizon Business. As part of the contract, the state keeps 45 percent of the profits the calls generate; MCI keeps the rest.Ninety-three percent of the state’s $4.5 million take in 2006 was spent on the non-prison functions - state e-mail, websites for towns and cities, computer tracking systems for law enforcement, information technology department staff costs and other computer and telecommunications programs.

Just $350,000 went to the state Department of Correction for inmate education and re-entry programs. And since 2001, the correction department saw none of the money during certain fiscal years. The practice goes on in several other states, advocates say.

There is another option: a lower pre-paid system that is only available at 2 facilities (out of 20) in the state. The costs of phone calls via these pre-paid systems are significantly lower.

Look, it’s pretty simple. We want inmates to have contact with family, to keep in touch with the real world so as not to lose a sense of self and belonging. This leads to happier inmates and easier re-integration upon release. This is a good thing. We want this. But it isn’t right to charge exorbitant sums (I mean, $17 for 15 minutes! Which one of us would keep a provider that charged that much?) from the families of those incarcerated and then siphon off those funds to do something else. If you’re going to charge that much, then keep those funds within the DOC and use them to improve the education and re-entry programs. Inmates families should not have to pay for new computers and law enforcement.

Technorati Tags: connecticut, prisons