Price of jail calls among highest in state

Pending legislation would eliminate additional fees

ALAMEDA COUNTY >> The price that Alameda County charges juvenile inmates for phone calls is among the highest in the state, say advocacy groups pushing to pass a state bill to reduce the cost of jail phone calls and eliminate commissary markups.

A 15-minute jail call for a juvenile locked up in Alameda County costs $12.75, or $382.50 a month if the youth speaks to family once a day, according to research by the advocacy organization Young Women’s Freedom Center.

By comparison, nearby Contra Costa County charges $3 for a 15-minute phone call; San Mateo County charges $6; and the highest in the state is San Benito County, which charges $13.65 for 15 minutes, according to the center’s data.

Charges for adult inmates are much lower than those for juveniles in Alameda County: Adult jail calls are $3.45 for 15 minutes.

This month, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the county became the first in the nation to agree to make all jail phone calls free and to stop generating revenue from all commissary items — food and hygiene products sold at jail stores.

The charges can be especially hard on low-income families of color, who may take on debt to maintain communication with their children, the center says.

“I had to choose between putting my son in sports or paying for my daughter’s phone bill,” Angelica Sanchez said in a statement. Her juvenile daughter was locked up in Los Angeles. “I allowed my daughter to call home as much as she wanted because I knew she needed to hear my voice, so my bill was very high.”

Alameda County has not charged juveniles for phone calls since the pandemic hit in March, said Brian Ford, assistant chief probation officer of the juvenile division, in an interview. The probation department is considering eliminating phone fees for juveniles altogether, he said.

We don’t anticipate charging for phone calls in the future, Ford said. He did not indicate, however, why the fees were so high for juveniles in Alameda County.

Alameda County receives 40% of the profit from commissary sales in its adult jail. The charge is allowed under state law to help pay for jail operations.

San Mateo County receives 49% of the profit, and Napa County 28%. Sacramento County collects the highest profit in the state, at 54%, the survey found.

“These inflated prices make it hard for incarcerated people to buy the food items they need to stave off hunger, and the hygiene items they need to keep their dignity. The high price of commissary often places an economic burden on low-income women of color who are supporting incarcerated loved ones,” according to the center.

What jails charge varies widely, the researchers found: The price of a bar of soap could range from as low as 60 cents to $2.25, a tube of toothpaste from 85 cents to $3.36, and a bag of chips from 45 cents to $2.

Revenue generated at Santa Rita Jail for both commissary items and jail phone calls goes back to the jail to help fund those services, Alameda County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

For example, some of the money pays for GTL, or Global Tel Link, to provide

phone service, he said.

In addition to paying vendors, the money also goes into the inmate welfare fund, which helps cover the cost of programs such as classes or school for inmates.

Kelly said the higher prices in Alameda County could be a result of a higher cost of living in the Bay Area, compared with perhaps more rural counties.

“We understand the issues around those costs,” Kelly said. “Commissary are privileges the inmates get … someone somewhere has got to pay for the funding of those programs.”

Much like the juvenile department, Santa Rita Jail is providing adult inmates free video calls while inperson visits are suspended because of the pandemic, Kelly said.

Research on what jails charge was conducted by the Young Women’s Freedom Center in partnership with other organizations, such as the Children’s Defense Fund-California and San Francisco Financial Justice Project, and compiled based on public records requests of jail contracts.

From the center’s research, they found that according to the contract between the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and the commissary vendor, Keefe, the county receives at least $500,000 a year, which goes toward its inmate welfare fund. In

addition to that $500,000, the county’s welfare fund receives 40% of net commissary sales.

Senate Bill 555, introduced by state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, would lower phone rates and other communication services between people inside county jails and their families or others outside. According to the bill’s language, it also would require commissary items to be sold at the cost charged by vendors supplying the items — in other words, not at a higher markup.

This isn’t the first time the cost of jail phone calls and commissary prices in Alameda County have been called out by advocates or attorneys, or even inmates themselves.

Last year, some jailers went on a hunger strike at

Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, and their list of demands included fair prices at the commissary and for telephone calls.

The hunger strike ended after about six days, without any of their demands met.

In 2004, The Associated Press found that California jails received $120 million in revenue from jail phone calls; Alameda County collected $2.1 million in commission from inmates’ phone calls at the time.

According to the county’s 2015-16 inmate welfare fund report, Santa Rita Jail and the now-closed Glenn Dyer Jail in Oakland received a combined $2.1 million in commissions for that year.