We just read a good article in The Independent, by Tracy Overstreet, about how Hall County Jail set up an email service for inmates - because the phone rates were too high! And the licensed phone provider for the jail? You guessed it – Securus!
The jail administrative assistant said that local call costs a flat rate of $3.75 for 15 minutes – which is still 25 cents per minute for a local call!
One inmate told the Independent “They changed the phone rate because most of us came from Omaha.” Long-distance calls in Nebraska cost $3.95 plus 69 cents per minute. The long-distance calls outside Nebraska carry only the FCC-mandated 25-cent-per-minute rate. At those rates, a Hall County inmate calling California could talk for 15 minutes for $3.75, while a Hall County inmate calling Omaha would have a cost of $14.30 for the same 15-minute call!
As the inmate said “It is now cheaper to call California than to call Omaha.”
That is why the email system was introduced, through the commissary system: $2 for a weekly subscription, or $8 for a monthly one.
Whether the email system will reduce phone revenue remains to be seen. According to the Corrections Director, Fred Ruiz, the jail typically sees about $1,800 in phone calls per week.
If you would like to read more, you can check out: http://www.theindependent.com/news/local/hall-county-jail-adds-email-service-for-inmates/article_c14d2ddc-2b49-11e4-9b15-0019bb2963f4.html
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