Cell calls (the prison kind) soon will be less costly

OLYMPIA — In-state long-distance phone calls soon will be much cheaper for prisoners and their families in Washington.

Critics have long complained that the state's current rates are too high, weighing heavily on people struggling to stay in touch with loved ones behind bars.

Under the existing contract with AT&T, a 20-minute call to Tacoma from Airway Heights Correction Center in Spokane County costs about $22, Department of Corrections spokesman Gary Larson said.

Under the new system, set to be in place by midsummer, the same call will cost a flat rate of $3.15 or $3.50, depending on whether it's a collect call or paid out of new inmate phone accounts.

"This is critical," said Lisa Young, an Arlington woman whose longtime boyfriend is serving a prison sentence at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Snohomish County. She said she's spending about $200 a month to stay in touch with him.

Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, a national inmate-advocacy group, said Washington is currently tied with Arizona for the highest prison-phone costs in America.

The November Coalition, a group based in Colville, Stevens County, that is lobbying to reduce drug sentences, is one of many groups pushing for reduced phone charges.

"They're ripping off the poorest of the poor," the coalition's executive director, Nora Callahan, told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane.

"We've known people that have been evicted because their phone bills get so big," Callahan said. "Or relationships disintegrate. You can't afford to pay the cost of the calls, but you can't bear to hang up on them."

FSH Communications, a company based in Chicago, signed a new contract with the state Friday. Department of Corrections Secretary Harold Clarke is expected to sign it soon.

Although in-state long-distance calls will be much cheaper, local calls are going to cost more: They'll cost $3.15 or $3.50, the same as in-state long-distance calls, instead of the current $2.

Larson said most offenders rely most heavily on long-distance calls, because inmates may be transferred from one lockup to another. "Even if today all the people they want to talk to are a short distance away, in the future that may not be the case," Larson said.

Calls outside Washington will remain relatively expensive: $4.95 for the first minute, then 89 cents a minute. International calls also will remain pricey. Those rates couldn't be capped because they involve different phone-service providers, FSH sales director Dana Alixander said.

The new contract will guarantee that the state will continue to make millions of dollars from inmate calls.

The new contract, Larson said, guarantees the state $5.1 million a year. The AT&T contract guaranteed the state 40 percent of the cost of calls, which added up to more than $3.8 million in the fiscal year ending last June 30.

A quarter of that money goes to a state fund for victims and witnesses. The rest goes into the prison system's "Offender Betterment Fund."

Corrections officials say the fund pays for things taxpayer dollars used to cover, such as community-area televisions and holiday treats.

Unlike the current system, the new phones will not require collect calls. Inmates, friends or family members will be able to add money to prepaid phone accounts, Larson said.

Advocates say maintaining connections with family and friends is critical for inmates when they get out, as most do.

"The more we can keep imprisoned people in touch with their families, the fewer problems they'll have when those people are released," Callahan said.