No-Cost Communication

What we want

We want all state and local jails, prisons, and detention center facilities in Georgia to provide fee-free communication, including phone calls, emails, and paper mail and packages. State and local governments in GA should not engage in kickback payment structures with third-party correctional system service providers.

These contracts exist at the state and local level and are governed by a multitude of local governments. There should be statewide action to restrict the fees that can be charged for phone calls in correctional facilities, and local governments should cease and be discouraged from engaging in commission-based structures that add additional fees, making communication between incarcerated individuals and their family costly.

Reasons for Reform

Georgia receives the third highest amount of communication contract kickbacks and 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 communication methods along with other surcharges.

Local governments establish contract agreements with the company that provides for part of those revenues, often more than 50%, to be returned to the government. This creates a model that favors high prices because they generate more revenue, 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 the service provider, so family members must create an account and add funds to the 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 the addition of surcharges beyond the normal market rate.

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 presumed innocent.

Encouraging individuals that are incarcerated to maintain connections with their family and friends results in better rehabilitative outcomes and helps reduce some of the hardship inflicted upon their families.

Georgia’s State and Local Call Cost Information

State phone service provider: Securus

State Kickbacks

$8,062,200.60 in kickbacks were paid to the State of Georgia in 2019.

• That’s 3rd most in the nation, an increase from last year.
• Percentage of call cost going to kickbacks: 59.6%
• Interstate calls have a 0% kickback rate
• Data from FY 2018

Local Jail Call Rates and Providers

This information comes from the Prison Policy Initiative and was collected in 2018.