Legislators did the right thing by inserting language in a supplemental appropriations bill, now before the governor, that would keep prison phone fees comparable to residential rates. The governor should preserve that language, and Corrections should drop efforts to pay for special equipment by overcharging prisoners and their families.
Inmates who maintain regular family contacts are less likely to reoffend. Earning less than $1 a day at prison jobs, inmates should not pay four times as much to make a phone call.
Prison phone use rises and falls with rates. Last year, Michigan's 44,000 prisoners made 13 million calls, for an annual average of nearly 300 phone calls per inmate. Prisoners can't get incoming calls, and outgoing calls are monitored.
But a new contract with Public Communications Services, effective July 1, has nearly doubled phone rates for Michigan prisoners, increasing them from 10 cents to 18 cents a minute for prepaid debit calls and 12 cents to 20 cents a minute for collect calls.
Corrections spokesman John Cordell said Michigan will still charge less for inmate calls than 39 other states. "We're still one of the cheapest," he said.
Four years ago, Michigan's prisoner phone rates were far higher, with a 15-minute call -- the maximum time allowed -- costing a typical inmate nearly $8. MDOC made roughly $10 million a year off the surcharges.
At issue with the current contract is a surcharge enabling the department to collect millions of dollars a year to install costly cell phone detections systems at Michigan's 34 prisons. One such system could include towers that intercept unauthorized cell signals.
Without the special equipment fund, base telephone rates would drop to about 4 cents a minute. The fund would collect more than $11 million a year, the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending (CAPPS) estimates. The phone company, PSC, would take 30% as an administrative fee.
That's unconscionable. Moreover, such detection systems are not needed. Even MDOC officials acknowledge that Michigan's problem with unauthorized prison cell phones is smaller than those in other states. Nor is there evidence that prison cell phones are widely used for criminal activities. The problem can be handled with more conventional -- and affordable -- methods, such as manual searches and mobile detection equipment.
Taxpayers should not have to subsidize prison phone calls, but neither should the state make millions of dollars off them to pay for unnecessary security equipment, while jeopardizing the family and community ties that help offenders succeed after they're released.