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| Inmate Communication Help Falls Flat |
| By texastribune.org |
| Published: 01/13/2011 |
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Texas prisoners have made and received more than 4.7 million telephone calls and sent and received 1.8 million e-mails since 2009, when the state became the last in the nation to allow inmates phone and e-mail access. The calls and messages haven’t added up to much in the way of revenue, though. The $6 million the inmate phone and messaging system generated for the state, according to information obtained under Texas open records law, is far less than the tens of millions of dollars some lawmakers had hoped to realize. And it’s smaller even than more conservative estimates made by the state budget board before lawmakers voted to allow access. Inmates’ family members say the state could make a lot more money and further decrease the smuggling of cell phones into prisons with just a couple of changes to the phone policy. And the lawmaker whose bill originally created the phone and e-mail program says the Texas Department of Criminal Justice needs to re-evaluate the operation. “They’re just going to need to re-examine, particularly in these tough budget times,” says state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. “I think there’s effective ways for us to maximize the program.” Lawmakers approved Van de Putte’s SB 1580 in 2007, requiring the TDCJ to find a company to install pay phones that inmates could use to keep in touch with family and others who form support systems for them outside prison walls. Before that, inmates could make only one five-minute phone call every three months. Van de Putte says she wrote the bill after watching a family member wait at her phone for weeks at a time, refusing to leave the house and bathing in the middle of the night, just in case her loved one called from prison. “We’re no different, as legislators, from everybody else,” she says. “We go through our trials and tribulations.” Read More. |
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