NJ should investigate cost of prison phone calls: Editorial

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Inmates in New Jersey pay very different rates for local phone calls, depending on which jail they are housed in. Oddly enough, long distance calls are usually the cheapest.

(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

There's no reason inmates should have to pay exorbitant fees just to call home. The families of people behind bars are often the ones getting socked with these bills, and the highest rates are reportedly being charged in our county jails — which house people who have yet to be convicted.

This is why a coalition of social justice groups in New Jersey has filed a petition, asking the state Board of Public Utilities to investigate prison phone prices and require service providers to cap local calls at 5 cents a minute. That’s similar to what New York State charges, they say.

Our state should look into these reports of overcharging, and whether the local rates in our correctional facilities can be consistently capped.

The federal government has already moved to cap out-of-state calls, which is a step in the right direction, but its new rules now make it cheaper for many inmates to call long distance than locally. This defies common sense. In Bergen County jail, advocates say, a 15-minute out-of-state call costs $3.75, while calling inside New Jersey costs about twice as much.

There’s also little consistency across the state. In Passaic County, officials reportedly negotiated a contract that keeps costs flat at $4.25 for a 15-minute in-state call.

Cutting off inmates’ contact with their families isn’t only unjust, it’s bad public policy. Research has shown that keeping in touch with people back home makes prisoners more likely to fit in when they’re ultimately released back into society, which means they’re less likely to reoffend.

The BPU should do its part to make sure inmates aren’t being gouged as captive customers, and pay a fair rate no matter what county they’re being held in.

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