Keep Pressure on Congress for Prison Phone Reform

by Matt Kelley · 2009-10-08 07:30:00 UTC
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill this week -- with Senators Chuck Grassley and Mary Landrieu -- to classify cell phones as contraband in federal prison. Also this week, the Senate passed the cell phone jamming bill I've written about before.

Both laws are generally fine with me -- prisoners shouldn't have cell phones. But our representatives are missing a perfect opportunity to address a much wider problem, and one that contributes to our high recidivism rates: access to phone calls in prison. Prisoners in at least 10 states pay more than $1 a minute for phone calls. Only six states have rejected the kickbacks from phone companies that keep the prices of prison calls high.

As the jamming bill moves to the House and Feinstein's new federal prison cell phone bill moves forward, we need to tell our representatives in Congress that these bills shouldn't go forward without changes to the rules that govern prison calls.

UPDATE: Many of you have taken action on this issue - I've now redirected the petition directly to Rep. Bobby Scott in the House. He's a firm advocate for prisoners' rights, and he could make this happen in the House. Take action today.

Photo by Jurvetson

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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