Inmates at California state prisons will save $17 million a year on telephone calls under the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s new contract with its phone vendor.
The six-year contract with GTL sets rates at 2.5 cents per minute for all calls, a reduction of 5.1 cents for in-state calls and a reduction of 18.5 cents per minute for calls outside California, said a news release Monday. State officials predicted that a 15-minute phone call anywhere in the country will cost just 37.5 cents. International calls would cost just 7 cents a minute, a reduction of 68 cents. The lower rates will take effect March 19.
Prison phone access has increased in importance since visits were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The communication between our incarcerated population and their loved ones is paramount to their rehabilitation. This reduction in the cost of telephone calls is the result of the hard work of our administration and staff, and the commitment to make this communication affordable and accessible,” said Kathleen Allison, secretary of the agency.
More prisoner savings: the $3 fee to establish a GTL account has been eliminated. Additionally, every prisoner will be given 15 minutes of free telephone calls every two weeks using a new personal identification number. And the cost of email messaging will fall from 30 cents a message to 5 cents.
The cuts come at a time when federal regulators have asked the states to reduce the high phone rates, which officials believe deter inmates from staying in touch with family members. The Federal Communications Commission last month wrote a letter to state governors seeking a cap of $3.15 per 15 minutes for in-state calls. The California rates were among the highest in the nation.
GTL is the same vendor used in the Orange County jail system, where the company came under fire for improperly recording phone calls between inmates and their attorneys. According to some estimates, GTL recorded more than 60,000 calls in violation of attorney-client privilege — one of the most sacred tenets of the law. GTL said the recordings were made in error. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is shopping for a new phone vendor.
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