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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:10 am
Time: 2:10 am
Results for telephones
2 results foundAuthor: Kukorowski, Drew Title: Please Deposit All of Your Money: Kickbacks, Rates, and Hidden Fees in the Jail Phone Industry Summary: At a time when the cost of a phone call is approaching zero, one population is forced to pay astronomical sums to stay in touch: the families of incarcerated people. For a child to speak with her incarcerated parent, a family member or friend is forced to pay almost $1 per minute, plus a long list of other fees that easily double the total cost of the call. Faced with phone bills that can total hundreds of dollars, many families have to choose between paying for calls and paying for basic living expenses. Social science research shows that strong community ties are one of the best predictors of success after release from prison or jail, but the prison telephone market threatens those ties because it is uniquely structured to create a counter-productive cycle of exploitation: prison systems and local jails award the monopoly contracts to the phone company that will charge the highest rates and share the largest portion of the profits. The prisons and jails get their commissions, the phone industry gets the fees, and the families get the hefty bills. While previous research has documented the unjustifiably high calling rates in the prison phone industry, this report is the first to address in depth the many fees prison phone customers must pay. We find that meaningful regulation of the prison phone industry must stem from a comprehensive analysis of the customers' whole bills, rather than limiting the discussion to addressing the high per-minute calling rates alone. This report finds that fees have an enormous impact on prison phone bills, making up 38% of the $1 billion annual price of calling home. This report details the fees that prison phone companies charge for "services" such as: •accepting customers' money (deposit fees of up to $10/deposit) •holding on to customers' money (monthly account fees as high as $12) •closing customers' accounts (refund fees of up to $10) This report reveals that these fees are but the tip of the iceberg, though, as many other charges are far less transparent. For example, some companies operate "single call programs" that charge customers who do not have preexisting accounts up to $14.99 to receive a single call from a prison or jail. Some companies have hidden profit-sharing agreements with payment processors such as Western Union, which are not disclosed to the correctional systems that award contracts. Other companies give their fees government-sounding names, even though the fees are not required by the government and may not even be paid to the government. Unlike in most industries, bad customer service is a key source of revenue for prison phone companies. For example, most of the industry finds it economically advantageous to use poorly calibrated security systems to drop phone calls and trigger additional connection charges. Other companies show no hesitation to triple the cost of a call made to a local cellphone by charging consumers the more expensive long distance rate. Previous research has generally focused on the price to call home from state and federal prisons, but we find that limiting the scope to prisons only significantly understates the sheer number of families that must bear the burden of exorbitant phone bills. This report expands the discussion to also include the families and friends of the more than 12 million people who cycle through 3,000 local jails across the country every year. To our knowledge, almost no local jails refuse commission payments in order to make calling home more feasible. Because the opportunities for consumer exploitation in this broken marketplace are almost endless, regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the only permanent, nationwide solution that would remove the inherent conflicts of interest between the facilities that award monopoly contracts, the companies that execute them, and the families that pay the price. The FCC should craft a regulatory solution that is based on a comprehensive view of the prison phone industry, taking into account each of the components that contribute to customers' high bills, including fees. Details: Northampton, MA: Prison Policy Initiative, 2013. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 30, 2013: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html Shelf Number: 128874 Keywords: Consumer FraudFamilies of InmatesJailsPrisoners (U.S.)Telephones |
Author: Wagner, Peter Title: State of Phone Justice: Local jails, state prisons and private phone providers Summary: At a time when the cost of a typical phone call is approaching zero, people behind bars in the U.S. are often forced to pay astronomical rates to call their loved ones or lawyers. Why? Because phone companies bait prisons and jails into charging high phone rates in exchange for a share of the revenue. The good news is that, in the last decade, we've made this industry considerably fairer: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) capped the cost of out-of-state phone calls from both prisons and jails at about 21 cents a minute; The FCC capped many of the abusive fees that providers used to extract extra profits from consumers; and Most state prison systems lowered their rates even further and also lowered rates for in-state calls. However, the vast majority of our progress has been in state-run prisons. In county- and city-run jails - where predatory contracts get little attention - instate phone calls can still cost $1 per minute, or more. Moreover, phone providers continue to extract additional profits by charging consumers hidden fees and are taking aggressive steps to limit competition in the industry. These high rates and fees can be disastrous for people incarcerated in local jails. Local jails are very different from state prisons: On a given day, 3 out of 4 people held in jails under local authority have not even been convicted, much less sentenced. The vast majority are being held pretrial, and many will remain behind bars unless they can make bail. Charging pretrial defendants high prices for phone calls punishes people who are legally innocent, drives up costs for their appointed counsel, and makes it harder for them to contact family members and others who might help them post bail or build their defense. It also puts them at risk of losing their jobs, housing, and custody of their children while they are in jail awaiting trial. Details: Northampton, MA: Prison Policy Initiative, 2019. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 18, 2019 at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice.html Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice.html Shelf Number: 154638 Keywords: Prison Policies and ProceduresPrisoner CommunicationsTelephones |