Price-gouging prisoners wrong

Being in prison should be tough. But it shouldn’t be an opportunity for unscrupulous business practices that add financial punishment to time behind bars.

Carrollton-based Securus Technologies provides phone service for inmates at 3,400 correctional facilities across the country. This is big business. Securus handled 240 million calls last year and brought in $700 million. That revenue number is large because the price of prison phone calls is astronomical. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times last month, Securus charges as much as $24.82 for a 15-minute call.

The company doesn’t keep all that money. As is common industry practice, Securus sends a portion of its fees back to the prisons is serves. The parties to these arrangements call that a commission. Critics call it a kickback. In either case, it’s an extra expense to inmates that can account for up to 90% of the cost of a call.

New York City and San Francisco have passed measures ensuring that all phone calls from jails would be free. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which does not contract with Securus, decided in February to cap rates at 6 cents per minute.

Punitive charges that disconnect inmates from family or, more likely, add a major financial burden to families of inmates are unjust in themselves.

We hope the company takes steps right away to decrease the need for an even heavier regulatory hand.

The Dallas Morning News