Incarcerated people face heightened costs to communicate with families

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• Amna Nawaz:

  For years, advocates have argued that incarcerated people in the U.S. are overcharged for basic phone calls.

  It's a less well-known issue, but essential for prisoners and their families. This winter, a new law went into effect aimed at capping the price of those calls in prison and jail. But even as prices have come down, a new report is sounding the alarm about the escalating costs of essential non-phone services for video and electronic messaging as well.

  Our communities correspondent in New Orleans, Roby Chavez, has been looking into all of this as part of our series Searching for Justice, And he joins me now.

  Roby, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us.

  So, bring us up to speed on these prices. Why does it cost so much for incarcerated people to keep in touch with their families?

• Roby Chavez:

  Well, look, Amna, it is a huge burden.

  Some families tell us they spend anywhere from $400 to $500 a month just to stay in touch with their incarcerated loved ones. Now, there are many issues that impact these high costs of these phone services. Number one on that is a lot of these prisons get commissions from their phone service providers. Advocates say they're getting kickbacks, and that is what keeping these prices high.

  There's also a lack of competition out there. Only a handful of providers are giving services to prisons and jails across the country. And the one thing we hear from families is, in addition to the high cost of the calls, they also are inundated with extra fees just to deposit money or open or close one of these phone accounts.

  But there is help on the way. As you mentioned, federal regulations, including a law signed by President Joe Biden in January, will put a cap in place for in-state calls. Previously, there was a cap only on out-of-state calls. Back in 2018, prices in jail ranged from $10 to $15 for a 15-minute call. Today, it's a lot lower. The average is about $3 a call, but family members say it's still too much.

  Now, advocates warned that there are still higher prices for other communication services, like video calls, e-mail-like services and using tablets, because all of those technologies remain unregulated.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And, Roby, why are these calls so important? I mean, what do we know about the connection between public safety and making sure that incarcerated people are connected to the outside world?

• Roby Chavez:

  There's a lot of research that shows that it leads to better outcomes, while people are in prison, better behavior, better health.

  And then, once people are released from prison, if they have these good support circles in place, then that makes reentry much more successful. And studies show that it lowers the recidivism rate. In fact, those people who had no contact with loved ones were six times more likely to end up in prison.

  Now, these high costs are such a burden to families, particularly in states like Louisiana, where more than 50 percent of the population is considered working poor. Those costs add up. We spoke with one family member who told us she spends about $300 a month just so her four daughters — her four children, rather, can speak to their grandfather, who is incarcerated.

  The reason that matters is, because the burden falls on these families, they then become financially unstable and are more than likely not able to help their family members once they are released from prison. And the reason that that matters is because a lot of people who are released from prison have a lot of debt, like $13,000 in fees and fines that were incurred when they were sentenced.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, Roby, the prices for phone calls have been coming down. That is good news.

  But what about for other services to stay connected? Are families still being overcharged on those?

• Roby Chavez:

  Yes, Amna, as we wait for those new regulations to be put in place by late next year, advocates are already warning that some of the costs have already shifted to other forms of communication and technology.

  In fact, a report was released last week by the Prison Policy Initiative. They warned that prison telecom companies are evading regulations and making money off of those kinds of services like text-based electronic messaging, similar to e-mail, but comes with limitations.

  The cost to send those e-messages varies. It could be free to 50 cents in places like Alaska and Arkansas. At least 43 state prisons now offer some type of electronic messaging options. Again, these type of messaging, it's not like regular e-mail, because it lacks certain features, has arbitrary restrictions like character limits. And attachments like photos and videos, those all cost extra.

  So most advocates believe we're moving in the right direction, but there are still some gaps.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is our communities correspondent, Roby Chavez, joining us from New Orleans.

  Roby, thank you so much.

  And you can read more of Roby's reporting online at PBS.org/NewsHour.

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