Washington Sen. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island, knew that the state charged people for phone calls and messages in and out of prison. But he didn’t realize the extent of these fees, he said, until he started talking to incarcerated people.
“Every time I email them, it’s 25 cents. Every time they email me back, it’s 25 cents. Think about all the emails we send as legislators in a day,” Hansen said to his colleagues at a Tuesday committee hearing.
Under Hansen’s proposed Connecting Families Act, the state’s roughly 13,000 prisoners would have free access to phone calls. The bill would require other electronic communications the Department of Corrections provides, like emails and video calls, to be free as well. It also says prisons would have to at least maintain the communication services they offered as of Jan. 1.
The act passed the Senate Committee on Human Services on Thursday, with Republicans opposed. Its next step is the Ways and Means Committee.
“We want people in prison to get on a video call and help their kids with their homework. We want them to check in with their mom and see how she’s doing,” Hansen said.
“At the end of the day, we should make that easy,” he added. “Because what is going to help people come back into the community and not go back into prison is supporting their friends and family.”
The cost of a prison phone call
Currently, each incarcerated person in state prison gets two free 20-minute calls per week, four free 30-minute video visits per month, and 55 free “stamps” per month that can be used to send email and video clips.
Beyond that, the costs can quickly stack up.
The Department of Corrections charges 5 cents per minute plus taxes for phone calls in prison. But Securus, the company Washington and many other states contract with to provide prison communications, also charges transaction fees, and a 15-minute, in-state call can average $3.34, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
Video visits cost $4.95 for 30 minutes. Emails and video messages are paid for with the stamps, the price of which varies depending on how many a person buys. A 20-pack of stamps is $5 and it takes one stamp to send an email.
Ladarion Roberts, who is incarcerated at Washington Correctional Center for Women, said almost her entire family lives in southern California, making in-person visits difficult. She told lawmakers she struggles with debilitating depression, made worse by the shame she feels about being a financial burden to her family.
“I feel as though I need to isolate myself in order to save my elderly parents and middle class sisters from financial devastation,” Roberts said.
Research has linked frequent phone calls and strong family ties to lower recidivism rates and reduced violence in prison against both staff and other prisoners. Children of incarcerated parents do better in school and have better relationships with their families when they’re able to maintain contact, a 2010 study found.
Phone calls in prisons aren’t free in most states, but that’s changing: Connecticut became the first state to eliminate fees in 2021, andfour other states have followed since then. About a dozen other states are considering similar legislation, according to the nonprofit Worth Rises, which is leading a nationwide campaign to make prison phone calls free.
Washington’s contract with Securus runs through Jan. 30, 2028. If Hansen’s bill is approved, the state would cover the expense of the company’s services. There was not an estimate available as of Friday for how much this might cost.
A burden on families and friends
A 2015 study from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights estimated that as many as one-third of families with loved ones in prison go into debt trying to stay in contact with them, and the majority of the financial burden is placed on women.
Christopher Blackwell, an award-winning journalistincarcerated at Washington Corrections Center, said he and his social network have spent around $50,000 on communication services, mainly emails and phone calls. One testifier, Darrell Jackson of the Black Prisoners Caucus, said he spends $180 a month trying to stay in contact with his loved ones.
“There is no reason predatory companies like Securus should be able to rob our families,” Blackwell said. Blackwell has spoken out about the controversial prison telecom giant in previous reporting.
Incarcerated people in state prisons who work jobs in their facilities can make anywhere from 65 cents to $2.70 an hour, unless they work as firefighters for the Department of Natural Resources, in which case they can make the local minimum wage as of 2021.
Jerry Thomas, who is serving his 15th year of a 23-year sentence, said he’s been determined to stay in contact with his teenage daughter, but the financial burden has been primarily placed on her mother and grandmother.
“Many people feel as if we’re incarcerated, this is something we have to deal with. But we’re not personally the ones who have to deal with it,” Thomas said. “It’s our family and loved ones.”
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This story was originally publishedby Washington State Standard.