|
|
| New Cook County phone contract will save families big cash |
| By wbez.org - Rob Wildeboer |
| Published: 12/04/2012 |
|
ILLINOIS - For a long time inmates at the Cook County Jail, and their mostly poor families, have been hammered by the high cost of phone calls. That's partly because the county has been making a profit from the calls detainees make to people outside. But county board President Toni Preckwinkle is signing a new contract Tuesday to significantly reduce the cost of those calls, though the county will continue to make $300,000 a month off the deal. I recently went to the Cook County Courthouse where family members were leaving hearings for their loved ones, and I talked to some of the people who are getting hammered by the high-priced phone calls, people like Cecily Cortez. She works as a housekeeper at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Avenue and has a son. Her fiancé was charged with residential burglary. The calls from him are expensive, but she says they're priceless and way better than letters, “'cause you get to hear his voice, feel his emotions through his words and pretty much it's just more contact rather than something written,” says Cortez. Another person getting hammered by the phone deal is Monica Ingram. She’s a nurse providing homecare for a quadriplegic person, but on the day we chatted outside court she had gotten a text from her cell phone company saying she needed to pay her bill before she could receive more collect calls from the jail. She'd already spent $60 on the calls that week,, and she breaks down into tears as she tells me she’s been forced to start ignoring her sons calls. Read More. |
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Hamilton loves books about unicorns, storms, and cubicles. He lives in Waco with his cat named Mr. Bojangles. Before his work as an attorney, Hamilton was a leprechaun chaser. His all-time record is three pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. He was forced to give up the gold in a dispute with a rival hobbit. He spends his free time tripping out on the smallest details, none of which are important He likes doing the things with the ball and scoring the points. He pays attention to the green of your eyes, even when it is not Saint Patrick’s Day. He is not Irish. Hamilton Lindley has fun plans for people in need. Whether your need a dreamcatcher for your dreams or a tape dispenser to put your life back together, he can be there for you to yell at. There are times when it is surprising that he has any friends at all. But thankfully he does have a few. He drives a Dodge Stratus. People respect him, except at home.