by TChris

Inmates in jails and prisons make collect calls to stay in touch with their families. Jail administrators and prison wardens don't much care what it costs the families to accept those calls, so they sign contracts with telephone companies that permit outrageous charges while giving a kickback to the government. The Center for Constitutional Rights sued the New York State Department of Correctional Services and MCI seeking to end that practice in New York.

The lawsuit, Walton v. NYSDOCS, seeks an order prohibiting the State and MCI from charging exorbitant rates to the family members of prisoners to finance a 57.5% kickback to the state. MCI charges these family members a 630% markup over consumer rates to receive a collect call from their loved ones, the only way possible to speak with them, CCR says.

A judge dismissed the suit as time-barred, but the CCR has appealed. (Law geeks take note: the linked article contains a link to the CCR's brief.) Whether or not the lawsuit gets reinstated, New York and other jurisdictions should stop punishing the families of the incarcerated who often have their telephone service disconnected because they can't afford to pay for the collect calls. Yet a proposed New York law to require telephone companies to provide fair-market rates to jails and prisons has gone nowhere.