This week has been crazy. My town is a Spring Break town, so last week there was a sudden influx of inebriated teens using the internet here, and the tubes went down. Almost every single day last week there was serious downtime, lasting as long as nine hours. Very frustrating considering I make my living on the web. So, that's why we didn't have a featured prison on Wednesday.
I am lucky enough to have caught the signing of the bill to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico, though. That seriously made my week. Way to go everyone who worked tirelessly promoting abolition in that state. You should feel seriously proud of yourself. You have saved lives.
So, this week, the sites are going to have a prison calls theme, because I know it is a source of serious frustration for a lot of you, both family and friends of the incarcerated as well as many volunteer workers in the prison system. I have had my own frustrations as well. I have done backflips to get a call from my friend, including signing up for a whole new phone line solely for calls from him. Living in Canada back then, I had to pay the exorbitant costs for a prison collect call, as well as long distance prices. I was paying about $22 per 15 minute call. I was making a lot more money back then, but that's still insane. Especially since my friend and I had a history of spending 16 hours at a time on the phone before he went to prison. Narrowing it down to 15 minutes was a near impossibility and he would call sometimes 8 times a day. That's a $176 day.
On top of these prices, the phone company, which was called MCI back then (I think they are GTL now?), would constantly block my line. I went through hoops trying to talk to someone who could tell me why and they said that they just randomly do that to whomever, because frequently people are unable to pay their bills. What? I could always pay my bills. And I'm sure there are a lot of very consciencious people out there, making sure their bills get paid even if that means they don't eat for a day or two. What that is, in my mind, is harassment of people who have fell on some hard luck. Lest we forget, it is not the prisoners paying these bills. It is their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, children who are paying these bills. People who have not been convicted of a crime, and therefore, should not be punished. They would cut off the line with no warning so childrens birthdays are missed, Christmas, Graduation. There was one point when something awful happened in my life and I was forced to tell my friend in a letter because they had chosen that time in particular to cut us off.
It is plain and simple harassment and I hope that the phone companies who do this will be held responsible one day. They are committing a crime far worse than the crimes of some of those people it affects.
There are some people out there, however, who can help with the phone situation, especially if you live outside of your loved one's area code and have to pay long distance rates.
Prison Calls Online - I was with this company for some time. They have excellent customer service and any time your line gets blocked they immediately get you a new one. All you have to do is get that number to your loved one via letter or visit. They get you a virtual number in the area code where your loved one is locked up so that you don't have to pay long distance charges, and it forwards to the phone of your choice, including cell phones which otherwise cannot accept collect calls. You prepay to fill your account so you are never spending more than you have. It's very easy to do this with your online account and a credit card, and the system can tell you approx. how many calls you can afford with the amount in your account. Everyone can save money with this company, even if you're in the same area code. There are a lot of other companies that do the same thing as these guys but I've heard a lot of things about people being screwed by some of these companies. I know this one is trustworthy and they do save you a lot of money.
The Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges - This website is designed to help you advocate for changes in the prison phone system.
New York Campaign for Telephone Justice - The objectives of the New York Campaign for Telephone Justice are to achieve more equitable rates for phone calls to and from prison, a high level of consumer choice within the prison telephone system, and fair service without unilateral preemptive cut-offs.
Illinois Campaign for Telephone Justice - The Illinois Campaign for Telephone Justice is seeking relief from the high cost of prison telephone calls from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Prison Talk Prison Calls Discussion
And of course, the petition to lower the cost of calls from prison. Sign Here.
To see an archived list of all Sunday Sites, click here. To suggest a site for Sunday Sites, email me here.
Technorati Tags: prison, prison calls, inmate calls, prison phone, inmate phone, MCI, GTL
I am lucky enough to have caught the signing of the bill to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico, though. That seriously made my week. Way to go everyone who worked tirelessly promoting abolition in that state. You should feel seriously proud of yourself. You have saved lives.
So, this week, the sites are going to have a prison calls theme, because I know it is a source of serious frustration for a lot of you, both family and friends of the incarcerated as well as many volunteer workers in the prison system. I have had my own frustrations as well. I have done backflips to get a call from my friend, including signing up for a whole new phone line solely for calls from him. Living in Canada back then, I had to pay the exorbitant costs for a prison collect call, as well as long distance prices. I was paying about $22 per 15 minute call. I was making a lot more money back then, but that's still insane. Especially since my friend and I had a history of spending 16 hours at a time on the phone before he went to prison. Narrowing it down to 15 minutes was a near impossibility and he would call sometimes 8 times a day. That's a $176 day.
On top of these prices, the phone company, which was called MCI back then (I think they are GTL now?), would constantly block my line. I went through hoops trying to talk to someone who could tell me why and they said that they just randomly do that to whomever, because frequently people are unable to pay their bills. What? I could always pay my bills. And I'm sure there are a lot of very consciencious people out there, making sure their bills get paid even if that means they don't eat for a day or two. What that is, in my mind, is harassment of people who have fell on some hard luck. Lest we forget, it is not the prisoners paying these bills. It is their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, children who are paying these bills. People who have not been convicted of a crime, and therefore, should not be punished. They would cut off the line with no warning so childrens birthdays are missed, Christmas, Graduation. There was one point when something awful happened in my life and I was forced to tell my friend in a letter because they had chosen that time in particular to cut us off.
It is plain and simple harassment and I hope that the phone companies who do this will be held responsible one day. They are committing a crime far worse than the crimes of some of those people it affects.
There are some people out there, however, who can help with the phone situation, especially if you live outside of your loved one's area code and have to pay long distance rates.
Prison Calls Online - I was with this company for some time. They have excellent customer service and any time your line gets blocked they immediately get you a new one. All you have to do is get that number to your loved one via letter or visit. They get you a virtual number in the area code where your loved one is locked up so that you don't have to pay long distance charges, and it forwards to the phone of your choice, including cell phones which otherwise cannot accept collect calls. You prepay to fill your account so you are never spending more than you have. It's very easy to do this with your online account and a credit card, and the system can tell you approx. how many calls you can afford with the amount in your account. Everyone can save money with this company, even if you're in the same area code. There are a lot of other companies that do the same thing as these guys but I've heard a lot of things about people being screwed by some of these companies. I know this one is trustworthy and they do save you a lot of money.
The Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges - This website is designed to help you advocate for changes in the prison phone system.
New York Campaign for Telephone Justice - The objectives of the New York Campaign for Telephone Justice are to achieve more equitable rates for phone calls to and from prison, a high level of consumer choice within the prison telephone system, and fair service without unilateral preemptive cut-offs.
Illinois Campaign for Telephone Justice - The Illinois Campaign for Telephone Justice is seeking relief from the high cost of prison telephone calls from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Prison Talk Prison Calls Discussion
And of course, the petition to lower the cost of calls from prison. Sign Here.
To see an archived list of all Sunday Sites, click here. To suggest a site for Sunday Sites, email me here.
Technorati Tags: prison, prison calls, inmate calls, prison phone, inmate phone, MCI, GTL
This is an email I received from Hamden Law Firm; I have verified as real and upfront...if you have an issue with your calls, then I urge you to check out this website!!
ReplyDeleteDear PrisonMovement,
If you take a look at my website, you'll see that I've been working to pass that legislation (as well as its predecessor) for more than two years. Trouble is, it doesn't mandate fair rates for prisoner phone calls, it merely directs the FCC to look at the issue. By far, the more important work at present is the effort to persuade the FCC to adopt a comprehensive resolution of the abusive practices of the prison telephone entry. Your help in that effort would be much appreciated. Please see http://www.hamdenconsulting.com/CallToAction.html for a simple explanation of the problem, links that provide useful resources, and easy to follow, step-by-step instructions for filing electronic comments with the FCC. (Filing electronically will by-pass the lengthy delays that can result from Homeland Security Screening of snail mail.)
Thanks for your interest in this matter,
Best wishes. - Michael
Michael S. Hamden
Attorney and Counselor at Law
www.HamdenConsulting.com
Thanks for that info Carol!
ReplyDelete