Families want state to stop profiting from prison calls

HARTFORD — After bringing attention last year to high phone costs for families calling their loved ones in state prisons, state Rep. Josh Elliott is again leading the charge to pass legislation to end the practice of allowing the state to profit from the calls.

Currently, the state collects a 68 percent commission on all calls family members make to inmates.

“We absolutely, hands down, are going to get this done,” Elliott told a crowd gathered Thursday at the Legislative Office Building to show support for the proposed bill.

Elliott and advocates for prison reform, including the New York-based advocacy group Worth Rises, want the state to end what critics call a “kickback” to Connecticut coffers by renegotiating the phone contract that adds a commission to the cost of the calls.

Elliott and the rest of the advocates are hoping proposed legislation currently before the Judiciary Committee will put an end to the practice.

The cost of the calls is about $5 for 15 minutes of phone time. The phone fees heavily impact the poorest communities in the state whose residents are more likely to be incarcerated, said Brittany Kane, project coordinator for the Connecticut Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative.

“Children and families have not committed any crime but they are serving time with their loved one every step of the way,” Kane said.

The state is taking in about $7.7 million annually by charging up to 68 percent more than the actual cost of the service for certain in-state calls.

Advocates want the state to make the prison phone calls free.