If you’re still wondering why your prison phone bill is so outrageous check out this article from David Lazarus, at the LA Times, about high phone fees for L.A. County inmates “Gouging L.A. County inmates with high phone fees“.

Even though Lazarus focuses on L.A. County inmates, his investigations and explanations are applicable and valid for all jails across the USA.  We’ve featured similar stories in our Buzz section before, and you can check them out here.

Lazarus exposes the conflict of interest, and the hypocrisy, of L.A. County officials who say they’re determined to protect family members of inmates from onerous pay phone charges, while at the same time they have a big incentive to keep rates high — the County gets the lion’s share of the take.

Global Tel-Link, the leader together with Securus Tech in providing phone services for prisons and jails across the country, has a contract with L.A. County jails, and with 5,000 pay phones, GTL guarantees the Sheriff’s Department at least $15 million in annual payments. And the department receives more than two-thirds of any pay phone revenue above $15 million.

The L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said “Everyone’s making a lot of money at the expense of inmates’ families.” He has led efforts to reduce jail pay phone charges. “They’re in jail,” he said. “They’re paying their debt to society. That doesn’t give us the right to fleece them.”

In the article, Lazarus writes about a woman whose son was in L.A. County jail for only a few days, and even though they talked only once she spent more than $25 with GTL.

She was required to deposit a minimum of $25 to open an account for her son; then a 6 minute local phone call cost $3.15, and when her son was released GTL told her she needed to pay a $5 refund fee in order to get her $20 back (and wait for a few months). Funds that remain inactive for more than 180 days become the company’s property – and GTL makes sure this is almost always the case.

Inmates and their families sometimes pay more than $25 just to talk once from a local jail

This is a typical case of a prison phone rip-off.

The problem is that there are millions of families and friends of inmates who are defrauded, or “gouged” in this way – all across the country. The US has between 2.2 and 2.4 million inmates, and an average inmate is estimated to have between 7 and 10 people calling, so imagine the size of this, as Lazarus says, “quintessential captive market,” and the profit that big companies, like GTL and Securus are making, together with the administrations responsible for giving them contracts – all off the misery of people who already have enough misery in their lives.

But the argument for keeping such an arrangement is always the same - all proceeds from the pay phone contract go the Sheriff Department’s Inmate Welfare Fund, which provides education programs for detainees and money for upkeep of jail facilities. And while this makes sense from a budgetary perspective, it also brings in conflict of interest. In its efforts to maintain revenue from jail pay phones, the county is not keen on reducing costs for inmate families, nor is it willing to change the system. GTL’s contract with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department expires in 2020 – imagine how many more inmates and their families will be ripped off until then!

If you are as outraged as we are, join our conversation, write us your examples, and let’s hope that public discussion will help modify this unfair system.

How to save on prison phone bills

Check out the providers that help you save on such high phone bills – there’s no way to get around these huge telcos, but there is a way for your to save, at least a bit of money, by using providers that give you local phone numbers, so that if you’re paying long distance, you reduce the rate, and pay local.

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