Prisoner Telephone Access

CURE Position:

Research indicates that incarcerated persons with a strong social support system will do better when released from prison than those without a strong support system.  Telephone calls are an important tool in maintaining those social support systems.

Therefore, CURE believes that:

• The cost of calls from a prison should be comparable to the cost of the same call in the free world.
• Incarcerated persons should be able to make debit calls, because:
  • Debit calls are less expensive.
  • Incarcerated persons with jobs can pay for their own calls.
  • Debit calls are not subject to call blocking in cases where the call recipient’s local carrier has no billing agreement with the prison phone system.
• Incarcerated persons should have access to new technologies, (e.g. calls to cell phones and VOIP phones) when those technologies pose no security threat.

In addition, incarcerated persons and their families and friends should have access to email at reasonable rates.

For more Information, visit the ETC Campaign Web Site .