People inside prisons often can’t afford to keep in contact with their support system due to the cost of communication, advocates say. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Incarcerated people and their families spend $15 million annually to stay in communication with each other, largely at the expense of loved ones on the outside who have to foot the bill, according to a new report .
This means that people inside prisons, who earn extremely low wages at daily rates, often can’t afford to keep in contact with their support system due to the exorbitant fees imposed by two companies that control prison communications, according to the report, released Monday by progressive think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective.
“When you take into account the wages that an incarcerated person makes, realistically, they cannot afford to maintain a relationship. Especially if they’re a parent trying to communicate with their child, you can’t afford to talk to somebody as often as you would like to,” said Marleina Ubel, senior policy analyst with the group. “It’s just not possible.”
The new report comes four months after one from the state corrections ombudsperson that said the Department of Corrections yanked phone privileges for thousands of incarcerated people as punishment for disciplinary infractions, sometimes for a year or far longer.
To communicate with the outside, incarcerated individuals rely on ViaPath for phone calls and JPay for video calls and emails. Phone calls cost about 4 cents per minute, or about 60 cents for 15 minutes; video calls cost about 33 cents per minute, or $9.95 for 30 minutes; and electronic messaging runs around 35 cents per credit or 70 cents for a message with a photo. The low-tech tablets sold by JPay also cost about $50.
These are “extraordinarily expensive” for those incarcerated, said Ubel. Sometimes, people spend their entire daily pay just to receive one email with one photo attached, she added.
Incarcerated workers earn anywhere from $1.60 to $7.50 for a day of work, with most people earning between $1.60 and $3 on average, according to data the group studied from the New Jersey Department of Corrections.
People in prison pay for more than just phone calls. They also buy items from the commissary, pay child support, or need funds to pay for medicine. As a result, the majority of costs fall to family members, disproportionately women of color, according to the report. And 1 in 3 families or support systems of people who are incarcerated go into debt to pay for the communication, the report states.
New Jersey has the highest disparity across the country between Black and white people in prisons, with Black people making up about 60% of the prison population, and white people, about 20%, according to Prison Policy Initiative , a nationwide group tracking incarceration rates.
“You have folks that are already economically vulnerable for a variety of reasons now trying to pay for these fees set by these private companies just to make sure their children can communicate with their parents,” Ubel said.
Ubel said this results in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for these companies, who have monopolized prison communications. Across the state in 2023, JPay made $1.7 million through electronic messages and video calls, and ViaPath brought in more than $4.8 million in revenue from state and county prisons.
Daniel Sperrazza, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said state prisons account for about $7.6 million of the $15 million spent on calls, videos, and emails.
Sperrazza said the state recognizes the positive benefit for incarcerated people when they have contact with loved ones. The department has made communications more affordable and accessible, including by phasing out commissions collected by the state and reducing fees for various services, he said.
“New Jersey maintains one of the lowest costs in the nation for phone calls for incarcerated persons, and negotiations are ongoing with a new vendor to further expand and improve access to phone calls, video visits, and other multimedia messaging,” Sperrazza said.
Ubel said the state could eliminate all fees for calls and emails.
“We can make these communications free for incarcerated people and their families. Quite frankly, it shouldn’t cost anything to send an email,” she said.
Monday’s report notes that $15 million makes up just over 1% of the Department of Corrections’ $1.2 billion budget.
A bill in the state Legislature would require all adult and juvenile correctional facilities, county jails, and private prisons to allow incarcerated people to make and receive calls, video calls, and emails free of charge to both the sending and receiving party.
Under the bill, the costs would be shifted to the correctional facility operator. Other states have moved to similar models, including Connecticut, California, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, along with New York City.
Sen. Brian Stack (D-Hudson) is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, and Assemblywoman Carmen Theresa Morales (D-Essex) in the lower chamber.
“Maintaining family and community connection while incarcerated is key to successful reentry, and thus it is in the public interest to reduce the economic burden on incarcerated persons associated with making and receiving calls and messages,” the bill reads.
The bill, introduced in February, has not yet been heard in either chamber’s committees.
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