A House committee has advanced a proposal to set a flat rate on how much inmates are charged to make phone calls home from the state’s jails and prisons, to promote family communication even during times of incarceration.
“Right now there’s no set standard,” according to Independence Republican Aaron McMullen. “It’s just a patchwork of whatever the county or local [government bids] it at.”
According to data presented to the House Committee on Corrections and Public Institutions, some facilities are charging more than $1 a minute for a phone call, and on average, a 15-minute phone call costs $5.74. One study found that more than one-third of families with incarcerated relatives went into debt due to the costs of keeping in touch with those loved ones.
McMullen and Kansas City Republican Michael Davis are sponsors of a proposal to cap the cost to inmates at $.12 per minute. Davis said their plan for facilities in Missouri is based on how the federal government regulates calls from correctional centers that cross state lines.
“The federal government can regulate interstate calls, but they don’t have the ability to regulate intrastate calls,” Davis explained to the Committee. “What our bill does is, we apply the regulation that the federal government is applying … to interstate calls at the rate for correctional centers, which is $.12.”
The pair said their goal is to keep families in contact even during periods of incarceration. They said children who have limited contact with incarcerated parents have an increased risk of self-harm and suicide, and incarcerated parents who have contact with children are less prone to substance abuse or reoffending, upon release.
They said many families with incarcerated loved ones are poor, and high phone rates over the course of a year can amount to a third or more of a family’s income at a time when one of its providers is already absent.
A similar bill last year was approved by the committee 9-0. Committee members discussed possibly adding a cap on the cost of inmate email communications to this proposal.
Their proposals are House Bill 1679 (Davis) and House Bill 2169 (McMullen).