The biggest priorities for advocates and lawmakers

Prison Policy Initiative updates for September 11, 2019 Showing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

The biggest priorities for prison and jail phone justice in 40 states [[link removed]] High prison rates, high jail rates, high first-minute charges, and more [[link removed]]

by Peter Wagner and Alexi Jones [[link removed]]

It can be hard to figure out where to start to improve phone justice in each state, especially in the states where legislators, regulators, or individual correctional facilities have already instituted partial reforms.

So we've re-organized our national survey of in-state phone rates into this handy map showing the biggest remaining issues in each state:

No state is perfect on prison and jail telephone issues, and there are many ways to measure "how bad" a state's prison and jail phone rates are. Some states have good phone rates if they are measured by one criterion, but terrible if measured by a different one. For example, the Minnesota Department of Corrections charges only $0.75 for a 15-minute in-state call from state prison, but the jails in the state charge, on average, $7.19 for the same call.

To give a more complete picture of how, exactly, each state is failing, we compiled data on five different measures of prison and jail phone justice (see our data tables in the complete version of this article [[link removed]] on our website). For states that rate poorly on multiple measures, the map above offers our opinion about which issue is most important and actionable in that state.

For even more detailed data for individual facilities in each state, see the tables in the web version of this article [[link removed]] and these appendix tables from our State of Phone Justice [[link removed]] report:

Drops in in-state state prison rates over the last decade [[link removed]]. 2018 Phone Rates Survey [[link removed]] (2,055 local jails) The most expensive jail phone calls in each state [[link removed]]

Now that leaders and advocates in each state have easy access to the biggest issues standing in the way of phone justice in their states, it's time to get moving on making justice a reality.

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: Our report helps D.C. journalists fact-check false claims [[link removed]]

A U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. tried to argue against new reforms by falsely claiming that D.C. has a lower incarceration rate than any U.S. state. Our 2018 report States of Incarceration [[link removed]] helped local journalists set the facts straight. As public radio station WAMU reported yesterday, [[link removed]] the district has actually one of the highest incarceration rates in the country by some measures, and if you take an expansive view of incarceration (as we did in our report), D.C.'s incarceration rate is higher than that of any U.S. state.

Read our 2018 report States of Incarceration. [[link removed]]

Read WAMU's breakdown of the data. [[link removed]]

We're hiring - come work with us! [[link removed]]

Do you want to shape the future of the criminal justice reform movement? We're hiring a Development Director (or Development and Comms Associate, depending on experience) as well as a Policy Fellow, an Equal Justice Works fellow, and a Research Associate. For more information, see our Jobs page. [[link removed]]

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives) [[link removed]]

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Prison Policy Initiative

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