Corrections Agencies Oppose Proposed ICS Commissions Ban

12-375 on Wednesday. The payments are used to finance “an array of programs,” including sex offender treatment, vocational education, substance abuse treatment and transitional housing, Roberts wrote. The state has a three-year recidivism rate, half the national average, and losing the programs “would result in 302 more admissions to Kansas prisons per year at a cost of over $3.2 million annually,” Roberts wrote. “For a small state whose prison system is already over capacity, 302 more admissions means over 300 more victims, capacity expansion, and increased cost to taxpayers in the form of increased operational costs,” Roberts wrote. Arizona’s Department of Corrections is statutorily required to use ICS proceeds and commissions to pay for inmate education, work programs and substance abuse treatment, state corrections director Charles Ryan wrote the agency in a letter posted Wednesday. The department “remains concerned … about the FCC’s use of its regulatory powers to establish a national public policy, one-size-fits-all approach, to ICS without fully considering the impact on correctional operations,” the letter said. Columbia Legal Services, a Washington state nonprofit that provides legal assistance to inmates, wrote that collect calls to its hotline cost the organization an average of $410 per month, at an average rate of $1.07 per minute. “Capping the cost-per-minute of intrastate calls, prohibiting site commissions, and reducing ancillary fees will go a long way to ensuring that all people, including those in our countries' [sic] jails and prisons, are able to access timely legal assistance to protect and ensure their rights,” wrote Madeline Neighly, an attorney in the organization’s Institutions Project.