Originally Posted - February 26, 2007

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State prisons throughout the United States house convicted criminals including robbers, thieves and con artists.

Many times these inmates are miles and sometimes states away from home, relying solely on the mail and the phone to stay in touch with their families and friends.

But perhaps the biggest con artist isn't behind bars, it's Correctional Billing Services, a division of Evercom Systems Inc. and T-Netix Inc. that controls whether or not that inmate can communicate with his friends and family at costs that stagger the imagination.

According to the blurb on their website, Correctional Billing Services is the only nationwide provider to offer "customer care and account activation centers solely dedicated to the friends and family members of inmates"…….and their wallets. If you've got the money----up front---you can talk but talk's not cheap. The going rate is $17.30 for 15 minutes, no matter the location.

Correctional Billing Services is close to a monopoly, stating that it represents over 3,100 correctional facilities nationwide and as one snotty representative stated, they decide who you can talk with and when. "You're not talking to anyone", one young female challenged. "We own the phones and we set the rates and we can put a block on your calls whenever we want".

Evercom, formed in 1996, installs and maintains its equipment at no cost to facilities, and then pays generous kickbacks for the right to extort the families and friends of the inmates.

Correctional Building Services sets arbitrary thresholds, deciding how many collect calls you can receive in a 90 day period and once you reach that limit, you're cut off, regardless of if your bill is paid. Their "representatives" refuse to allow users to speak with supervisors, refuse to identify the criteria used to set their "limits". Call your phone company and they'll tell you there's nothing they can do.

In one particular case, the limit was set at $130 so at $17.30 per clip, that means in a 90-day period, you're limited to receiving 7 collect phone calls. Evercom decides for you how many phone calls you're going to accept and decides, regardless of your credit rating and past telephone history, how many collect calls you can receive and when. They call it "payment verification". Evercom, not you, is in control of your phone service. And you thought you had rights as a customer. It's not up to you to decide whether or not to accept a collect call, Evercom decides if you can even have that choice and decides how many calls you can have. If exceed their arbitrary limit, you can't have any calls, regardless of if your bill is paid.

Accept too many collect calls according to their standards in a 24-hour period, and you'll be blocked. Income, credit rating, nothing makes a difference to Evercom. Everyone gets extorted although not always equally.

And then, over and over and over, as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 11 p.m., Correctional Billing Services calls you to "advise" you of your balance. It's like you're in prison right along with your family member and family. You have no rights under Correctional Billing Services, they pull all the strings. You just pay the bill-----well, blackmail is more like it because it's pure extortion. You want to talk, you pay---and pay----and pay.

Even when there's a block on your phone, you can count on a call about every four hours.

"This is Correctional Billing Services. Please press 5 to receive an important message" the robot tells you. "Your calls from correctional facilities served by Evercom have been blocked". And then it's like "Deal or No Deal" to try and get the block removed for the privilege to use your phone even when your bill is paid.

In New York State, the Center for Constitutional Rights is challenging the exorbitant phone rates being charged prison families and friends by MCI. The state receives a 57.5% kickback from the recipient of the collect calls. MCI charges these family members a 630% markup over regular consumer rates to receive a collect call from their loved ones. CCR is challenging the constitutionality of the MCI rates and practices and the Court of Appeals has ruled that the matter can go forward.

But the MCI rates are a bargain compared to Evercom and Correctional Billing Services.

February billings show that a 30 minute call from a state prison in New York State costs $7.80 or $3 for the call plus 16 cents a minute---or $5.40 for 15 minutes.

But a 15 minute call billed through Evercom Systems Inc. costs $17.30, more than triple the cost of call from a New York State prison.

In New York State, the state had a monopoly agreement with MCI, now known as Verizon Business. The company charged regular phone users about 3 to 5 cents per minute but discriminated against state prison inmates by charging the recipients of their calls a $3 connection fee and 16 cents a minute, allowed to make collect calls only and not allowed to use prepaid phone cards. The state received 57% of the profits.

This 10-year contract between the MCI/Verizon and the state Department of Correctional Services will expire April 1 and Gov. Eliot Spitzer has ordered the elimination of the 57% in commissions the state was exploiting from the prisoners and their families, no longer will be state profit to the tune of $16 million annually in the exploitation of the inmates.

Effective April 1, the cost of collect phone call from an inmate in state prison will be cut in about half.

But the friends and families of inmates in facilities controlled, not served, by Evercom, will continue to be blackmailed and extorted in order to talk to their friends or family members.

Once you reach the cut off point that Evercom sets for you, you can't receive any more calls for the rest of that 90-day period unless you prepay for the calls in advance. They're not choosy, they'll take credit cards, checks, Western Union, whatever, and charge you an $8 transaction fee besides so that $17.30 for 15 minutes just increased again. If you prepay $50, the fee is $58 meaning you MIGHT be able to receive three-15 minute phone calls at a cost of about $19.80 each.

Evercom in essence forces you to give your personal information over the phone and forces you to do business with them, whether you want to or not. If you thought the choice of your telephone service provider and long distance carrier was up to you, think again.

The family member of one inmate summed it up succinctly. "I really feel like Correctional Billing is taking advantage," she says angrily. "I don't like giving out my personal information over the telephone. I've paid my bill, and now it's between my phone company and Correctional Billing Services. It really bothers me that Evercom can block my line at their whim, even though my bill is paid and has never been in arrears. My son is in what sounds like a horrible place, and I want to hear on a regular basis that everything is OK. There's no reason I should be hounded by this corporation in order to do that."

The owners of the Dallas, Texas based Evercom should be the ones behind the bars, jailed for grand theft, extortion and coercion.

Complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, to the Public Service Commission and to prisoners' rights groups are needed to effect the necessary and overdue changes and to reduce the costs of the collect calls. A class action suit is overdue.

To read more comments about the protested policies and costs of Evercom, see http://forums.treemedia.com/fb/showthread.php?t=713 and http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff140152.htm

Something has to be done to force Correctional Billing Services and Evercom to reduce its rates and to stop its price gouging, penalizing mothers and fathers, girlfriends and boyfriends, sisters and brothers and friends who have done nothing wrong but yet they are being charged outrageous rates, being penalized for having someone they love in jail.

To complain about rates for intrastate (within a state) collect calls from public phones in prisons, contact the state public utility commission in the state where the call originated and terminated. State public utility commission addresses may be found at http://naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15 or in the blue pages or government section of your local telephone directory. To complain about interstate and international rates, file a complaint with the FCC. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/Inmate.html

The Public Utility Law Project is also addressing the situation and information about inmate phone calls and what to do can be found at their website at http://www.pulp.tc/html/inmate_phones.html

It took a lawsuit to force MCI and New York to change its practices. That's what it's going to take to force Correctional Billing Services to hang up.
2-26-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette