STATE DOESN'T NEED KICKBACKS ON INMATE PHONE CALLS

Add a third potential item -- this one a $100,000 line item in an appropriation measure -- to the list of those that may be the subject of a veto override attempt this week in Jefferson City.

A veteran Missouri lawmaker says the family and friends of a prison inmate shouldn't have to pay the cost of talking to the inmate on the phone. Prisoners can make only collect calls through MCI. The calls can cost up to $3 to make a connection, which includes a 55 percent kickback to the state. Tolls on long-distance calls range from 20 cents a minute to 40 cents a minute. Among those who must pay the charge are people who receiving calls from prisoners placed in a special holding cell before they're executed.

During the year that ended June 30, MCI's payments to the state totaled $11.7 million, or nearly $470 for each of the state's more than 25,000 inmates. State Sen. Walt Mueller, R-Manchester, is using the issue in his attempt to override Gov. Mel Carnahan's veto of a family-visitation program. Mueller wants lawmakers to approve spending $100,000 to help families visit incarcerated relatives. Lawmakers convene in Jefferson City tomorrow for a brief annual session devoted to considering those measures vetoed by the governor.

In his letter to fellow lawmakers, Mueller says that studies have shown a correlation between family contact and rehabilitation. He also worries that the charges are falling disproportionately on families of poor prisoners who can't afford to travel to visit incarcerated kin. The appropriation would go to not-for-profit groups to provide rides to the prison for poor families, Mueller says, and would be modelled on a successful program long run by a St. Louis church.

It would appear Mueller is onto something here. A state with a $16 billion annual budget shouldn't have as a profit center the business of these inmate calls. Lawmakers should give careful consideration to Mueller's call for an override.