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This decision to make two phone calls per week free for inmates is tied to the rapid rise in COVID cases inside the jail. More than 25 percent of the inmates are currently quarantined. I don’t think it should be labeled as a gift. https://twitter.com/roccitynews/status/1336468446658392068
Prior to this year, calls cost $3.25 per 15 minutes. That was lowered to $1.50 this year. It’s tied into a five-year contract the county signed with a third-party vendor.
Some advocates and county lawmakers have called for the calls to be free, since the burden for paying for them falls on the families who receive the calls.
When I asked Sheriff Baxter today why the calls couldn’t be made free, he said it would be a breach of contract to do so. He did, however, indicate he would be willing to discuss options to lower the costs with county legislators.
MCSO currently has $1.6 million in a phone trust fund. This money was raised by calls made in the past. It would cost the county roughly $200,000 per year (or $0.03) per minute to make the calls free.
So MCSO could conceivably use the money in the trust fund to pay for these calls. But the contract with the third-party vendor would have to be re-negotiated and amended. I’m not sure if that’s possible.
Of note the County Legislature, which currently features 15 Republicans and 14 Democrats, voted by a 26-3 margin to approve this five-year contract just before the pandemic began.
My article about the jail covid outbreak and the decision to make some of these phone calls free will be online in the morning.
Expect the number of positive cases inside the jail — both inmate and jail deputies — to skyrocket as we move forward.
Expect the number of positive cases inside the jail — both inmate and jail deputies — to skyrocket as we move forward.
My point being, it’s not a gift, because the county is still paying for these calls. It’s not a gift, because the money being used to pay for these calls is the money collected from previous inmate calls. It’s basically the families of past inmates paying for current ones.
And Sheriff Baxter said this decision was being enacted in order to cut down on the isolation a lot of inmates will undoubtedly be feeling as many are housed in quarantine while deputies try to get this outbreak under control.
Context is key.
Here’s our story last year before the new phone contract was approved by county lawmakers. My colleague @SharpRoc spoke to a lot of voices to provide some differing perspectives related to this issue: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/11/11/monroe-county-set-slash-jailhouse-phone-rates-some-want-them-free/2561948001/
