RICHLANDS - Families of inmates are growing anxious over an unenforced
state law and legislation that is being dragged out for a third year.
With a family member facing jail time, many are not prepared for the
high cost of keeping in touch with these family members.
In addition to the burden some families face after loosing the income
of an imprisoned member, those families often bear the high cost of
telephone calls to remain in contact with their loved ones.
Joyce Barker knows that burden first-hand as she strives to continue
her relationship with her son. Barker, whose son is serving time in
Abingdon, said a 15 minute call from her son costs her $11.45. She said
in addition to the high rates of the call a surcharge is added to the
bill. If the caller is disconnected, even by the telephone company when
he or she calls back that adds an additional service charge to her bill.
Keith DeBlasio, legislative liaison with Virginia Citizens United for
Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) said the average in-state call from a
prisoner to his or her family is $9.77 for a fifteen minute call. This
can range from $13 to $22 for fifteen minutes state-to-state. He said not
only is this not in line with regular rates, but it's out of line with
many other prison systems.
"The state-to-state calls from the federal prisons, which use a
debit system, average at $3.45 per fifteen minute call," said
DeBlasio.
Families thought the large phone bills would come to an end after the
passing of House Bill 1765, which ordered the state Department of
Corrections to offer debit or prepaid telephone systems in addition to
existing collect-calling systems. This was supposed to allow telephone
calls to be placed to telephone number or numbers on an approved call
list available at the lowest available rates. That measure was supposed
to go into effect January 1 this year.
For more on this story, read the Feb. 1 issues of the Richlands
News-Press and Clinch Valley News
