Primary Investigator:

Steven Jackson, University of Michigan

Partnering Organization:

Prison Legal News (PLN) 

Presently, some 2.3 million men and women are incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States, and phone calls remain one of the primary means by which these prisoners maintain contact with their families and loved ones. However, telecommunications firms that provide prison phone services engage in an industry-standard practice of providing kickbacks (“commissions”) to state contracting agencies, which often award prison phone service contracts based not on the lowest rate, but on the highest kickback. The commissions range up to 60% of revenue from prison phone calls, and costs are passed on to the consumers who pay for those calls – prisoners’ families. Thus, prisoners’ families pay some of the highest phone rates in the nation when they accept calls from the incarcerated – over $1.00 per minute for long distance calls. Most of these families are impoverished and they have no organized representation.

Prison Legal News (PLN), in collaboration with Prof. Stephen Jackson at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, seeks to evaluate and analyze the nature and scope of these kickbacks and their fiscal impact on prisoners’ families. The team will submit public record / FOIA requests to all fifty state governments and the federal government for: copies of current government contracts with prison phone service providers; the percent of received commissions; average prison populations; the dollar amount of phone commissions paid to government agencies; and – importantly – information on how the commission funds are being used. The project also relates to existing research regarding the demographics of prisoners and their families (socio-economic status and racial/ethnic makeup), and studies that have demonstrated a connection between maintaining close family contacts and lower recidivism rates for released prisoners.

PLN, a non-profit organization that publishes monthly newsletters on criminal justice-related issues, has a diverse constituency. 65% of its subscribers are incarcerated; the remainder, are prison officials, district attorneys, attorney generals, academics, journalists, researchers, civil rights lawyers, lawmakers, and prisoner family members. Findings from this study will be distributed via PLN networks. PLN will also disseminate results directly to FCC officials presently considering the “Wright petition” (FCC Docket No. 96-128 regarding regulation of prison phone service providers); to members of Congress considering H.R. 555 (pending federal legislation that would cap prison phone rates and prohibit the payment of “commissions” to government agencies); and to national media sources to educate the general public. PLN will also work closely with National CURE, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that coordinates grassroots efforts specifically on the issue of excessive prison phone rates. The research will be directly useful for National CURE and for other organizations that advocate on behalf of prisoners’ families and criminal justice reform.