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February 15, 2006
Pols must ring in on jail call ripoff
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Monday, February 13th, 2006
A protest in the state Capitol today kicks off what might be the final phase of the battle to end New York State's unconscionable practice of charging the families of prison inmates jacked-up prices to accept collect calls from men and women behind bars. It's up to the Republican-led state Senate to fix this major injustice - not only because it's right, but because it's politically smart.
As noted in this space in the past, a state contract gives MCI exclusive control of prison phone service, and the company has been charging $3 per call plus 16 cents a minute to those who take calls from New York prisoners, meaning a 20-minute call costs $6 - the highest rate of any prison system in America.
Under the terms of the contract, most of the profits going to the Correctional Services Department amount to more than $20 million a year. In the years since the contract was signed in 1996, an estimated $175 million has been paid from the pockets of inmates' families, most of whom live in low-income neighborhoods.
For the Republicans, who are forever calling for lowering taxes, getting rid of what amounts to a sky-high, selective tax on people who have done nothing wrong ought to be a no-brainer. But it has taken years for the Senate's Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections to finally pass a bill that would end the prison phone ripoff by ordering the department to award its phone contract to the lowest bidder.
One reason for the sudden progress is that the committee's chairman, Sen. Michael Nozzolio of central New York, recently came under fire from the editorial board of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, which called the phone monopoly "unfair and counterproductive."
Another explanation may be that Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno is only a few seats away from losing control of the Senate to the Dems. Nozzolio isn't particularly vulnerable, but other Republican incumbents are - and reforming the prison phone system takes a potent fairness issue away from the Democrats.
But the battle is far from over. Even though Nozzolio's committee approved a reform measure, the bill has been tossed into Albany's budget process, where many good laws go to die.
The families of prison inmates have been disappointed enough times to know they have to take to the streets to shame the politicians and phone company executives who are profiting from human misery. Today's demonstration, for instance, is in front of the Albany headquarters of Verizon, which has acquired MCI and its controversial phone contract.
Those who support ending the prison phone price gouging should call the phone giant at (800) 621-9900 and ask for the office of Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO.
But that pressure, valuable as it is, won't be necessary if Bruno, Nozzolio and the Senate leadership wake up and move to end an unjust and unnecessary tax on the poor.
Errol Louis was born in Harlem, raised in New Rochelle and lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife, Juanita Scarlett. He is the son of a retired NYPD inspector and formerly served as associate editor of The New York Sun. He has taught college, co-founded an inner-city community credit union, run for City Council and was once named by New York Magazine as one of 10 New Yorkers making a difference "with energy, vision and independent thinking." He holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Brooklyn Law School.
E-mail: elouis @edit.nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/v-pfriendly/story/390977p-331653c.html
Posted by lois at February 15, 2006 11:10 AM