Inmate families in spat with states over phone calls

With a husband in prison, Gillian Bennett's soaring phone bills were one more painful burden. So she signed on to a service that cut her monthly costs from $500 to $50 -- and skirted the prison system's expensive rates.

But what sounded like a good financial move quickly turned sour. New York state and the phone company said she broke prison rules, and blocked all calls from her husband to their Albany, N.Y., home. Her husband, imprisoned hours away, was threatened with solitary confinement.

The Bennetts' story is just one of many as disputes arise over prison phone charges in states including New York, Louisiana, Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

Citing security concerns, authorities are cracking down on new businesses that have jumped in to offer cheaper phone service to inmates' relatives.

Prison authorities and phone companies say their more expensive services should be the only choice because they are designed to be monitored to ensure inmates don't commit more crimes, like making threats or drug deals. They also profit from the calls -- prison phone service nationwide generates as much as $1 billion a year, some estimate.

'Company store'

Advocates for inmates claim authorities have created a modern version of the old mining town's "company store" -- charging exorbitant prices and allowing no choices. Prisoners can't receive calls, they can only call collect -- and their families end up paying.

"They told him they were going to make him the example," said Bennett, whose husband, Marlon, is serving a five- to 10-year sentence for first-degree assault. "They think nobody outside should care about them."

Authorities say the rate system is reasonable: It pays for security systems that allow prison officials to monitor and record calls. Many, like New York, say the money also provides inmates with extra medical care and programs. Courts and regulatory agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, have supported the position.

But states also get income from the prison calls, up to 50 percent or more of the revenue they generate. Nevada got an estimated $2.9 million last year from calls made by 10,000 inmates. New York, with 67,000 inmates, got $20 million.

"It's not quite as simple as you and I having a long-distance phone carrier which we just call," said Darrel Rexwinkel, an assistant director at Nevada's prisons. "They don't record those calls, they don't monitor those calls."

But in the last few years, the market has given inmates families' another option -- call forwarding.

With some variations, the systems work like this: An inmate's relatives establish a number near the prison that the inmate can call at the prison's local rate, typically much less expensive than long distance. The call is then forwarded to the relative's home, at a privately negotiated rate well below what the prison would charge.

Brian Prins, a former New York prison inmate who started the company Outside Connections, maintains the setup is legal because the call's final destination is set and can be provided to the prison. His is a licensed telecommunications company. His clients included Gillian Bennett.

"Inmates don't pay these bills. Their families do. Why must their families be punished?" Prins said. He fought the state in federal court and lost, and is now asking the FCC to stop New York and MCI from blocking his service. The commission had earlier expressed desire for competition in the prison phone market.

In New York and Ohio, the states or phone companies are aggressively pursuing and blocking such calls. Others are moving to do the same.

"They are ducking and avoiding the security costs necessary to safeguard New Yorkers," said Corrections Department spokesman James Flateau.

When a call is forwarded, the prison no longer knows where it's being answered, he said, and Marlon Bennett is just one of many being punished for using the services.

Prison advocates and private company operators claim phone companies that provide prison phone services are pressuring families to keep the prison-approved systems.

MCI Communications, one of the major providers of prison phone services, is taking action in some places against those who violate prison rules, under their state contracts, according to WorldCom spokeswoman Natasha Haubold.

She wouldn't say how many phones may have been affected, or in what states, citing business confidentiality. She said the company was taking steps to ensure bills were paid, but wasn't forcing anyone to switch providers.

In a rare victory, one inmate's wife won the right to keep the calls coming, at least temporarily.

Diane King Smith went to court to fight the block that stopped her husband -- serving life for murder -- from calling her at a cheaper rate. She paid $684.18 for a year of calls. The system required by the state would have charged her up to $2,072, she said.

A Louisiana judge last month ordered the state to let the calls through, ruling that the prison didn't follow its own rules when it banned such calls. The judge did not, however, endorse remote call-forwarded communications. The prison drafted a new rule and Smith continues to fight.

"The Department of Corrections is preying on family members," she said.

Most don't speak up, confused by bureaucratic run-arounds or scared of retaliation, she said. "This impacts on thousands of people and millions of dollars."