Inmate Calling Service Reforms Debated
The FCC's inmate calling service overhaul, including capping intrastate ICS rates, being considered in a rulemaking (see 1410230026), would help the families of prisoners, said the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice in comments posted in docket 12-375 Monday. Most inmates…
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made less than $8,000 the year before their incarceration, the group said. Upon their jailing, their families are left without their “primary breadwinner,” a situation made worse by the high cost of inmate calls, the group said. The elimination of commission payments to correctional facilities, as considered in the Further NPRM, would hurt the ability of Montana inmates to get a “head start” in re-entering the community upon their release, wrote April Grady, contracts management bureau chief for the Montana Department of Corrections. Decisions on spending funds from the commissions are discussed with inmate representatives, Grady wrote. Expenditures like recreation equipment, visiting room furnishings, family days, funeral visits and inmate television access would “be left unfunded if commissions are eliminated from ICS contracts,” Grady wrote.