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August 31, 2005
NY: Court to Hear Lawsuit AGainst MCI
Court to hear lawsuit on cost of inmate calls
By MARK JOHNSON, Associated Press
First published: Wednesday, August 31, 2005
ALBANY -- A court will hear a challenge to the telephone rates that relatives of prisoners face under a state contract for collect calls from prisons, a federal judge ruled.
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The suit filed in 2000 accuses MCI Inc. and the state Correctional Services Department with charging hugely inflated prices that make it unaffordable for many families to talk to their loved ones behind bars.
"It's really distressing to see the effect this has on families," said Barbara Olshansky on Tuesday.
She is deputy legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the suit on behalf of inmates' families and others.
The Aug. 26 decision by U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan throws out challenges to the state's policy of allowing inmates to only make collect calls and of limiting service to one provider.
But the judge did allow the challenge to the billing system -- in which the state takes 60 percent of the profits -- to proceed.
Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman Linda Foglia said Tuesday that it was department policy not to comment on pending litigation.
Under a billing plan revised in July 2003, recipients of inmate calls pay a $3 access charge and 16 cents a minute, whether local or long distance.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press.
All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2005, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.
Posted by lois at August 31, 2005 06:25 PM