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| Court rejects lawsuit over inmate telephone calls |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/09/2005 |
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Charging more for collect telephone calls from inmates does not amount to an unfair tax, a federal appeals court ruled last Monday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case filed by Pamela Gilmore of Omaha, Neb., whose daughter began accepting collect telephone calls in January 2003 from inmates she had befriended while jailed at the Douglas County Corrections Center. Court records show that a person who accepts a collect, 15-minute inmate-initiated call from the jail is billed $2.30 -- which Gilmore alleged was far beyond the actual costs incurred. Douglas County contracts with Public Communication Service, Inc. for a phone system inmates can use to make calls. The county gets 45 percent of the fees changed by PCS, which totaled $800,000 in the four years leading up to the lawsuit, according to court records. Gilmore alleged that the 45 percent commission paid to the county is a tax or levy imposed on "friends and relatives of inmates in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." The court upheld an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp rejecting that argument. Writing for the appeals court, Judge Lavenski Smith said that to prevail on an equal protection claim, Gilmore must prove "that some government action caused her to be treated differently from others in similar situations. "Gilmore's theory is that people who receive collect calls from inmates ... are treated differently from those general telephone service recipients who receive collect calls from callers not incarcerated," Smith said. Smith cited a 2000 federal court ruling from a similar case in rejecting Gilmore's arguments. Smith said the rates charged for the inmate calls allowed the county to "defray the costs of providing inmates with a specific service, it is not aimed at treating persons who receive collect calls from the DCCC differently from those who generally receive collect calls." Gilmore's home telephone number is not listed. Her lawyer, John Klein did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. |
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