Bill > S2526

Introduced Session

This bill provides that all adult and juvenile correctional facilities in the State operated by the Department of Corrections, the Juvenile Justice Commission, the counties, and private operators allow incarcerated persons to make and receive telephone calls, video calls, and electronic mail free of charge to both the sending and receiving party. Under current law, incarcerated persons may be charged for domestic telephone calls at up to 11 cents per minute using a debit, prepaid, or collect call system. Current law does not require incarcerated persons to have access to video calls or electronic mail, although such capability is already in place at certain facilities, with a fee charged to the incarcerated person. The bill makes an appropriation of such funds as may be necessary for the implementation of the bill, as certified by the Commissioner of Corrections and the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Commission. The Department of Corrections and the Juvenile Justice Commission retain the authority to establish rules and regulations for the security of telecommunication services. It is the sponsor's intent that the bill would not require any renegotiation of existing State or local contracts for telecommunication services, but would instead shift the costs associated with the contracts to the correctional facility operator. In the sponsor's view, the more incarcerated persons stay in touch with their families, the better they do when they reenter society, while those with weaker support systems due to lack of communication during incarceration are more likely to re-offend. 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 sponsor notes that New York City, Connecticut, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Colorado have all recently adopted legislation to make telecommunication services free to incarcerated persons. The sponsor further notes that prison telecommunication services is a $1.4 billion industry that has been accused of price-gouging and profiteering from the families of incarcerated persons. According to some studies, one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt over the cost of telephone calls charged by correctional facilities. It is the sponsor's intent to ease the enormous financial burden on the families of incarcerated persons who are simply trying to maintain communication with their loved ones.

Committee Categories

Raj Mukherji (D)*,  Brian Stack (D)*,  Patrick Diegnan (D),  Gordon Johnson (D),  Angela Mcknight (D),  Shirley Turner (D),  Andrew Zwicker (D), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee (on 02/08/2024)

Official Document