The Michigan Department of
Corrections is trying to lighten its
budget problems by putting them on the
backs of prisoners and their families.
By nearly doubling prisoner phone rates,
the department will collect an estimated
$8 million a year for a special
equipment fund. Another $3 million will
go to the phone company as an
administrative fee for collecting the
money. Talk about easy money.
A five-year contract with Public
Communications Services, effective July
1, increased phone rates for Michigan
prisoners from 10 cents to 18 cents a
minute for prepaid debit calls, and from
12 cents to 20 cents a minute for
collect calls. Bottom line: The contract
collects about 14 cents a minute per
call -- adding up to $11 million a year
-- for a special equipment fund that has
nothing to do with the cost of providing
telephone service.
Without special equipment charges,
base telephone rates would drop to about
4 cents a minute -- which is what
inmates should pay. The special
equipment fund was set up to pay for
telephone-related security equipment,
such as phone monitoring and cell phone
detection. Now, however, prison
officials say the department can tap the
special equipment fund for practically
any security-related expense -- a move
that would possibly violate state law,
or at least legislative intent.
The contract is a sweet deal for the
phone company -- and the department --
but not for Michigan's nearly 44,000
inmates, who rely on phone calls to stay
connected to spouses, children, other
family members and friends. Organizers
canceled a planned week-long phone
boycott, but prisoners and their
families are still steamed about the
rates.
"They're killing us," said Darryl
Woods, 39, an inmate at Ryan
Correctional Facility in Detroit. Woods
told me this week that higher rates have
cut phone calls among fellow prisoners
in half.
With fewer visiting days, high gas
prices and the remote location of many
prisons, phone calls are especially
important for keeping families together.
Corrections is collecting data on
prisoner phone use before and after the
rates went up. Last year, Michigan
prisoners made 13 million phone calls --
nearly 300 per inmate.
Inmates typically earn less than $1 a
day at prison jobs. Most of the money
for phone calls comes from families,
either directly when inmates call
collect or indirectly though prepaid
debit calls. Prisoners in Michigan's 32
prisons can't get incoming calls;
outgoing calls are monitored. Calls
cannot exceed 15 minutes.
Even with the recent hike, Michigan's
prisoner phone rates are lower than
those in surrounding states, said Russ
Marlan, administrator of MDOC's
executive bureau. "We understand any
increase will be unpopular, but we think
these new rates are fair and
appropriate," he told me this week.
"It's appropriate that they (inmates)
pay for some equipment that will keep
them and our staff safe."
It's unclear how big a problem cell
phones pose for prison officials, though
a bill pending in the Legislature would
make possessing unauthorized cell phones
in prison a felony. At least 20
contraband cell phones were found in
Michigan prisons last year, Marlan said.
Corrections is considering using the
special equipment fund to purchase a
variety of security-related equipment,
including radios, security cameras and
personal protection devices. Still,
using the fund to plug holes in the
prison budget is not what legislators
had in mind.
Since 2008, Corrections
appropriations bills have included
boilerplate that requires the department
to keep prisoner phone rates comparable
to those on the outside. It also
provides for special equipment costs,
but legislators like Rep. Joe Haveman,
R-Holland, intended those for cell phone
detection or other phone-related
security equipment.
"I have some concerns about it," said
Haveman, chairman of the subcommittee on
corrections appropriations. "... There's
a benefit to prisoners having access to
their families."
Haveman told me this week he would
monitor how Corrections spends the
money.
Excessive phone fees not only
unfairly burden low-income families but
also undermine the re-entry and
rehabilitation efforts trumpeted by the
department. Taxpayers should not have to
subsidize prisoner phone calls, but
neither should the state make millions
of dollars on the backs of some of the
state's poorest people.
JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press
editorial writer. Contact him at
gerritt@freepress.com or
313-222-6585.
