Georgia Ranks 35th for Jail Call Affordability

Georgia ranks 35th in the nation for the affordability of a 15 minute call.”

– PrisonPhoneJustice.org

Many local city and county jails, along with Georgia’s state prison system, contract with private third-party companies that place equipment in the facility and manage communication services for incarcerated individuals. These companies generate revenue by charging high rates for basic phone calls, along with other surcharges that disproportionately impact the most vulnerable in our communities.

Kickback Agreements Create a Perverse Arrangement

Local governments establish contract agreements with these telecom providers that return part of those revenues, often more than 50%, to the government. This creates a model that favors high prices because they generate more revenue for both the vendor and the governmental agency, and that is a perverse relationship that should stop.

Hidden Fees Disproportionately Impact Low Income Families

The only way to communicate over the phone is to use that facility’s service provider, so family members must create an account and add funds to their balance in order to allow their loved ones to make a collect call. For low-income individuals without a bank account, they must use money transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram. These transfer services have established referral agreements with these telecom service providers which results in extra fees on top of existing transfer fees.

These communication fees most severely impact low income individuals and families. Fees like these often fall entirely upon loved ones on the outside. These costs also affect individuals in pretrial detention who have yet to face any charges, effectively punishing someone while they are still presumed innocent.

State and local governmental entities should not be allowed to enter into revenue-sharing agreements with correctional facility service providers. While there are operational costs associated with providing access to phones, it should not be placed upon the shoulders of families who have done nothing wrong and are already suffering from the incarceration of a loved one.

State Provider, Rates, and Kickbacks

$7,807,260.54 in kickbacks were paid to the State of Georgia in 2017 through its contract with Securus.

That’s the 4th highest in the nation. The percentage of call costs going to kickbacks range from 58.5% – 62%. Interstate calls have a 0% kickback rate. This data was up to date as of November 2018 and comes from Prison Phone Justice.

The rates have actually gone down 48% over the last decade and went down to $2.40 in 2019 from $2.45 in 2018, but there is more to be done to make access to communication equitable and not just another way in which working families are punished the hardest.

Local Facility Providers and Call Rates

Below is a list of all the correctional facilities in Georgia, their telecom service provider, and their per minute call rate with the calculated cost of a 15-minute instate call. This information comes from the Prison Policy Initiative and was collected in 2018.