Hidden Costs of Incarceration: Part 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer of this column knows subjects of this story through family and friendship. Maria Reynolds-Weir is married to Joel Weir and has known Zach and Trudy for several decades.

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In 2024, Joel Weir regularly visited the federal penitentiary to visit an Irishman detained by ICE, Plainfield state prison to see a young man who started catechism some years back and twice a month visited Montgomery County Jail, sometimes holding services or catechumen classes for several inmates there.

         As family and friends of inmates know, visiting a prison is a labor of love. Access to inmates isn’t built with user experience (UX) in mind. Jails, prisons and penitentiaries each have unique systems for scheduling a visit. Each limits the number of visitors on an inmate’s registry and the frequency of visits differently.

         In addition, Weir signed up for each jail, prison and penitentiary’s communication services, which are contracted with private companies. Each text and call to a prisoner costs the person on the outside. Many families pay to receive calls and texts from inmates as well.

                Until Jan. 1, 2025, a 20-minute call cost $8. The passage of the Martha Wright-Reed Fair and Just Communication in July 2024 capped phone and video calling: “The FCC voted to set price caps for phone calls of 6¢ per minute for prisons and large jails, 7¢/minute for medium-sized jails and slightly more for small and ‘very small’ jails. This move lowers the existing caps by more than half, a tremendous step forward that will save the families of incarcerated people many millions of dollars every year,” wrote Wanda Bertram for the Prison Policy Initiative. Just to put the numbers in perspective, that 20-minute call dropped from $8 to a $1.20.

                Furthermore, prisons must now keep video calling rates at or below 16¢/minute. Jails must keep rates between 11¢-25¢ depending on the size of the facility. Additionally, the FCC prohibited companies from changing additional “ancillary service” fees for making a deposit to fund an account.

                These changes have a profound impact on low-income households, from which most inmates come, a reality that impacts rural communities as much as urban ones.

“This fits with nationwide trends: people in prison tend to have been among the poorest people in the country before their incarceration,’ writes Emily Widra for the Prison Policy Initiative.

         The Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy center reports in their The Whole Pie 2024 report that “the U.S. doesn’t have one criminal legal system; instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold over 1.9 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities, 142 immigration detention facilities and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals and prisons in the U.S. territories — at a system-wide cost of at least $182 billion each year.”

                Beyond the $182 billion spent to incarcerate people, there are additional uncounted costs paid by family, friends and clergy, usually to multibillion-dollar for-profit companies that negotiate with jails and prisons.

Two companies dominate the market. Securus, which serves Montgomery County Jail, has about 40% of the market according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. GTL, now known as ViaPath, owns about 43 percent of the market, with smaller companies filling in the remaining 17 percent. As late as 2017, Indiana Department of Corrections contracted with GTL’s subsidiary VAC, which paid almost $1.7 million to the state. GTL still contracts with IDOC for communications services.

                That year, IDOC contracted with GTL for tablets for all inmates. While these include free services, they also offer marked up extras like music streaming and movies. The IndyStar reported in 2017, when tablets first came to IDOC, that rented movies cost $8 each and music streaming was $25/month, 150 percent higher than a Spotify account.

                The high profit companies came into existence in 1995, after the breakup of Ma Bell, and Slate reported in 2023 that “By 1995, nearly 90 percent of the country’s prisons shared some profits with private telecoms firms. A survey from the time, published by the American Correctional Association, found that 31 corrections departments raked in about ‘$96.4 million in commission revenues from inmate telephone calls.’”

                The exorbitant cost of calls prompted Martha Reed-Wright, whose grandson was incarcerated, to file a federal lawsuit in 2000. Twenty-four years later the cost of calls is now regulated, but companies working with prisons have expanded services to payment services apps, ed-tech systems, video-software, GPS monitoring, and biometric analysis.

                According to Tracxn, Securus lures investors with the promise that Securus “provides detainee communications, parolee tracking, and government information management solutions, serving approximately 2,200 correctional facilities in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Mexico, and more than 1,000,000 inmates in the US. Solutions include phone, video, and email services, Jail Voicemail, and Money Transfer.” Growjo will tell you that Securus has 830 employees and an estimated annual revenue of $165.5 million per year with an estimated revenue per employee at $203,000. It doesn’t mention the average salary of employees or the salary of the CEO.

         A family member incarcerated is a kind of trauma unto itself. Suddenly many families have to navigate the system. It’s lonely without a strong support network, not to speak of the shame that others foist upon the family.

                Those who are older or newer to the situation start with a call to the jail. Trudy, mother to one of the inmates Weir visits, called the local jail after her son was incarcerated. The deputy wasn’t clear on the system, and Trudy ended up paying $11 for 40-minute calls, accepting collect calls at first. Finally, someone helped Trudy set up a Securus account so she could pay into an account Zach could use to contact her, his fiancé and Weir.

                Since Zach is no longer earning money, Trudy bears the financial burden of communicating with him and providing money for the commissary. She was retired and caring for her elderly mother. Now she substitute-teaches to pay off legal bills and stay in touch with Zach.

She pays $30 for 2,000 “connects” which are texts of 160 characters max. Each 15¢ text was about four or five lines. To purchase these, she still had to pay the surcharge, another $21.

         In addition, families pay surcharges to put money into commissary accounts for inmates. Trudy paid $8 for the first $100. For those families with the means, the next $100 is just two dollars more. But for very low-income families, commissary help comes in twenties and forties with $8 surcharge added on top.

         While Montgomery County Jail contracts with private companies for commissary funds, health care and communications, Sheriff Ryan Needham reports that the surcharges and commissions from contracting with Securus provide funds to the jail that they use for the basic commissary all inmates receive – deodorant, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrush, which are provided by Keefe, an outside commissary service owned by a private equity group. The jail provides underwear. Additionally, indigent prisoners are allotted two stamps, two envelopes and four pieces of paper weekly.

         Securus provides the tablets. Needham says the tablets serve as a great equalizer, ensuring every inmate has access to approved religious texts and the legal library. In addition, users can access all the books in the regular library, self-help materials and two games. Families may add funds for prisoners to access music, movies and texting. Needham says the tablets are pro-social incentives, distributed after breakfast and clean up are done.

         Needham says that Montgomery County Jail still maintains its own commissary as well. While families can use the online portal to add funds, they can also use the kiosk in the jail lobby to deposit up any amount up to $300 for a flat $4 fee.

                A common question families and friends, perhaps even clergy, have is whether they can hand-deliver goods. Prisons and jails require that all items be sent from third-party vendors. For instance, Weir pays out of pocket for study bibles which provide commentary, as well as prayer and devotional books, none of which are provided on the tablets. When a prisoner transfers from the jail to state prisons, these items are not transferred with them. What does follow are commissary funds.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, multi-issue political organization which encourages informed and active participation in government. For information about the League, visit the website www.lwvmontcoin.org; or, visit the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Indiana Facebook page.