Families of Prisoners Ask FCC Not Block Dial-Around Services

Families of prisoners are asking the FCC not to grant a Securus petition seeking a declaration the company can block the use of dial-around services that significantly reduce the costs of prisoner phone calls. Comments are not due until Friday, but the FCC is already getting a barrage of letters complaining about the high cost of calls from prison without use of the dial-around service.

Travis Welke of Eau Claire, Wis., said he had used ConsCallHome, which provided him with a local Leavenworth, Kan., number to cut the costs of calls home by a family member who otherwise has to make a long distance call. But that ended when use of the service was blocked by Evercom’s Correctional Billing Services, a major provider of phone connections to inmates, Welke said.

Using ConsCallHome, Welke said he had to pay only $3 for a 20-minute “local” call, compared to about $20 for a 20- minute call without the dial-around service charged as a long distance call. “As far as I am concerned, ConsCallHome was providing me a legitimate call forward service,” he wrote. “Correctional Billing/Evercom blocked this number for no good reason, forcing me to pay their extremely high prices for phone service. I think Correction Billing/Evercom is a monopoly and that charges way too much for their services and needs to be federally regulated.”

Sandy Morningstar of Las Vegas told the commission that Correctional Billing Services charges almost $25 for a 15- minute call and that calls made to her home from a family member in prison are often dropped by the service, leading to a $6 charge for every disconnect. “This is unfair especially in this economy,” Morningstar wrote. “We are just average people wanting to keep on touch with our loved ones and Correctional Billing Services is making that next to impossible. Life is hard enough when you have someone in jail or prison and not being able to talk with them makes life almost unbearable.”

“Telephone companies that allow inmates to call home want a monopoly,” wrote Anita Heath of Frostproof, Fla. “They charge the families of inmates inflated prices for those calls. We don’t want this practice to continue as it is only driven by greed.”