California second state in the US with free prison phone calls

August 3, 2023 3:38 AM

"At a time when most consumers enjoy free or low-cost calling, prison phone calls at their peak in California cost more than $6 per 15 minutes via a private telecommunications provider. That allowed only hurried, superficial conversations between the siblings — with one eye always on the clock. " Los Angeles Times: California’s free prison calls are repairing estranged relationships and aiding rehabilitation
posted by Harald74 (9 comments total)

This is a push in the right direction if we want to live in a world where people leave prison in better condition than they entered, and overall recidivism rates drop. There's a reason why Norway's prison model has resulted in the lowest recidivism rate in the world (and from what I understand, prisoners in Norway still pay for their own calls, so the free phone system in California is even more progressive).
posted by nightrecordings at 4:44 AM on August 3, 2023 [13 favorites]

Good.
posted by Fizz at 4:48 AM on August 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

NY does this too. Unfortunately, no one in power’s really doing this for the well-being of the inmates. I support the policy because it does improve life for most inmates, but I know someone whose job is listening to the calls of people awaiting trial here for the DA’s office to use as evidence, and that’s the real reason this stuff gets passed. Even with a “this call is being recorded” warning, the policy makes putting people away and keeping them there easier for the powers that be.
posted by vim876 at 5:57 AM on August 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

vim876, you raise an excellent (and true) point, and I think this is why so many prison reformists are ultimately pushing for cell phone access in prisons.
posted by nightrecordings at 6:03 AM on August 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

There are many things we need to do to improve life for those imprisoned. This is one of those things. Thanks for this post, Harald74.
posted by Bella Donna at 7:35 AM on August 3, 2023

The article is discussing California state prisons, not jails. While some number of inmates may be awaiting trial on additional charges other than those for which they have already been sentenced, a far greater number are simply being warehoused due to California's three-strikes laws. Proposition 184 unduly required a minimum of 25-year imprisonment for felony convictions where the defendant had two or more previous "violent or serious" felony convictions, which due to racist policing, prosecution, and juries disproportionately impacted ethnic minorities. This led to severe prison overcrowding, court orders to release inmates, and ultimately AB 109 realignment which shifted state prison inmates into county jails. Thus California county jails have little room for arrestees, and almost all defendants awaiting trial -- a huge number, backlogged by pandemic delays -- continue to live in their communities rather than correctional facilities. The San Francisco, San Diego, and soon Los Angeles County inmates being offered free telephone calls have generally already been convicted and sentenced. For the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates, certainly so, justly or not, and this policy along with a few others discussed in the article may be a legitimate effort to get CDCR to live up to its name and help inmates reintegrate into society.
posted by backwoods at 7:50 AM on August 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

Brother of one of my friends here in Texas was living in a cage. Phone calls were very inexpensive, almost free. Of course that's only *if* you're calling in that area code.

Texas is huge -- Germany would fit twice, for example, or, let's say you're driving from Chicago to El Paso, when you hit the Texas line in Texarkana you're still not half way. So of course most people were screwed w/r/t phones.

I set him up with a Google Voice account -- you can set them up wherever you want, and do it free. So then the kid could call free, or awfully close to it. Worked no problem.

So that's one situation in an area inside of one state.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:37 PM on August 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

I spent time in prison in Virginia in the 20teens, phone calls to numbers within the locality (any call to a number in the 757-123-XXXX number block [I forget what the 123 actually was but you get it]) were like $2 for 20 minutes. Calls to numbers in the 757-YYY-XXXX area code were like $6 for 20 minutes. Calls to numbers outside of 757 were something like $15 for 20 minutes. Totally fucking insane. Something close to half of the inmates were from the Richmond VA area - 804 area code - and many just couldn't afford to speak to their families. The business of prison is completely disgusting.
posted by youthenrage at 1:21 PM on August 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

It seems a bit obvious that people who have more access to the outside world while incarcerated, are more able to readjust back into the outside world when they are let back into it.

When I took a tour of Alcatraz, that closed federal prison located on an island only 1.25 miles away from San Francisco, the guides mentioned that you could easily hear the joyous sounds of the city from the prison grounds. They said that helped Alcatraz have one of the lowest recidivism rates of any prison. That's good for everyone, except I suppose the prison-industrial complex.
posted by meowzilla at 4:37 PM on August 3, 2023 [2 favorites]