Street Roots • January 2-8, 2015
C A P TIV E, from page 5
“Sometimes I forgo’ things at the grocery
store.”
According to Wilkinson at the Human
Rights Defense Center, hiring companies
like Securus is not how a government
agency would traditionally fund its
operations. “If the school district is running
short of money, the school district doesn’t
go to the parents of all the kids and say,
‘You have to pay $50 each because we’re
running short of money,”’ she says. “And in
effect, that’s what’s happening. The only
people that are providing this money are the
prisoners’ families, and in most cases
they’re poor and least able to provide this
money.”
Jimmie Stewart, whose son Jason Angelo
is in Mill Creek Correctional Facility in
Salem, says the financial burden of her son’s
incarceration is “very difficult.” Her son’s
wife, a student, and his two young boys are
living with Stewart and her husband in a
two-bedroom apartment in Portland while
her son serves his time.
Stewart and her family absorb costs
associated with putting money on her son’s
books. Mill Creek employs JPay for account
deposits, which, like TouchPay, charges a
sliding scale of fees for its services. It costs
$3.95 to send a deposit of $20 or less. This
may not seem like a lot, but for someone
with little means, it’s a hefty fee. Angelo’s
wife has resorted to giving blood in order to
put money on her husband’s account.
Stewart says she’s been trying to sort out
a mistake made by JPay in November. She
says she fried to send $100 to her soil, and
while JPay accepted the payment, the prison
says it never received it. She says JPay has
acknowledged the mistake, but by press
time, JPay had neither returned her money
nor forwarded it to Mill Creek.
National studies show the majority of
prisoners have at least one child under the
age of 18. For some families, keeping the
line of communication open between parent
and child is important, even when doing so
isn’t affordable.
Stewart pays what her son’s wife can’t
News
Page 7
toward phone charges in order to make sure
her son doesn’t lose contact with his sons.
“These are important times,” she says.
“His oldest son is in preschool, so he tells
daddy everything he’s done in school that
day, and the 2-year-old is just starting to talk,
so now he can tell daddy his new words,”
she says.
They’ve done video visiting a few times,
but at $9 per visit, she says it’s too
expensive.
Stewart’s son works four days a week on
a work crew at the prison, which pays him
about $40 a month, says Stewart - less than
half of what she pays in phone charges most
months.
costs on interstate calls made from
correctional facilities. Now, impending
regulations from the FCC might also cap
rates for local collect calls as well, which
account for 85 percent of all calls made from
county jails. The public comment period for
the upcoming FCC decision ends Jan. 5, and
a decision is expected by mid year.
After looking at data from 14 U.S.
correctional facilities, the FCC estimates
that in 2013, more than $460 million was
paid to correctional facilities in commissions
off of phone charges alone. “This means
that (inmates) and their families, friends
and lawyers spent over $460 million to pay
for programs ranging from inmate welfare to
roads to correctional facilities’ staff salaries
to the state or county’s general budget,” the
FCC stated in a notice of the proposed cap.
Costly contact
According to MSCO’s 2015 adopted
Before the Multnomah County Sheriff
budget, it’s been collecting about $400,000 a
signed the deal with Securus Technologies,
year from Securus in phone commissions
the prison communications leader had
over the past two years, but according to a
already been pulling in millions of dollars
MSCO spokesperson, that phone revenue
from Multnomah County inmates and their
has decreased since the FCC put caps on
families for years with high fees on collect
interstate collect calls.
calls. Under the 2013 contract with the
The bulk of Securus’s revenue comes
county, Securus, along with its
from phone charges. If the FCC decides to
subcontractors, has expanded its revenue
cap fees for local calls as well, Securus and
potential with the addition of inmate
other prison communications companies
financial transactions and visitations. Local
might have to rely more heavily on other
departments benefit with commissions.
products and services for making money
In Multnomah County, Securus charges
from their captive consumers.
$5.43 for a 15-minute local call. The
Some consumers — at least those footing
commissions made by the county from
the bills — have fired back.
phone calls go into the Inmate Welfare
The Better Business Bureau lowered
Fund, which was set up to pay for activities
Securus’s rating due to the number of
and services that benefit inmates. But over
complaints filed against it - 443 in th e p ast
the past two ffscal years, $92,521 w astaken
three years. According to the BBB’s Dallas
out of the Inmate Welfare Fund to pay for
other things on the county’s agenda, such as and Northeast Texas website, where
Securus is based, most complaints allege
an Eastside Streetcar assessment The
Securus “fails to provide acceptable product
Inmate Welfare Fund was one of only a
quality for its prison call services,” and that
handful of funds diverted as part of a
it “fails to provide refunds in a timely
supplemental budget both years.
manner.” Last September the BBB
The phone charges on inmate families
contacted Securus, requesting that it
caught the attention of Federal
eliminate the underlying reason for a
Communications Commission.
pattern of consumer complaints, but it has
Last year the Human Rights Defense
Center and other advocacy groups that were yettö receive a written response to its
pushing for prison phone industry regulation request for voluntary compliance.
Securus boasted record growth in 2013,
celebrated a victory when the FCC capped
TheTait Hom e
Where senior and disabled adults
receive the care and respect they deserve.
Call us for more information
(503)223-2144
1337 S.W. Washington, Portland, OR 97205
www.tafthome.org
From all of as at
Sisters,
THANK YOU
for your generosity In
supporting our
Together at the
Table Hatching Gift
Challenge!
Mothers of Incarcerated
Sons Society
The three mothers of inmates Street
Roofs spoke with for this story are
members of the national nonprofit
Mothers of incarcerated Sons Society
Inc. Rhonda Robinson founded the
group out of her Michigan home in
1992 after her own son went to prison.
It has since grown to be an online
support group with 1,800 members
nationwide and 31 members in Oregon.
MISS is open to anyone who has a
loved one serving time in a correctional
institution.
“Members are constantly posting
discussions regarding their financial
burdens with high phone rates,” says
Robinson. Her website hosts online
discussions on different topics and
serves as a source of support to people
dealing with the pain of having an
incarcerated family member. Many
Members of the group are also actively
advocating for changes to the prison
system, tackling issues like mandatory
minimum sentencing laws, solitary
confinement and air conditioning in
prisons.
In 2013 MISS held its first national
conference in San Diego, and it plans
to hold its second this year in Michigan.
.................. ............... ................ .............. .
To learn more, visit: mothersofinmates.org
and in a press release its president and CEO
Richard Smith stated, “Our expanded
product set of inmate phone calling, on-site
and remote video visitation, data analytics,
parolee GPS monitoring, jail management
(IT Systems), location based wireless
tracking services, interactive voice
recognition systems - and 650 other
products will allow us to grow and serve our
customers well into the foreseeable future.”
emily@streetroots. org
Sisters Of The Road
N o n p r o fit C a fe in O ld T o w n
U P C O M IN G E V E N T S
Jan. 19 - Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Holiday - Cafe open as usual with
special activities.
• Jan. 21 - Meet at 9:00am for an
action at City Council Chambers w /
R2DToo - Reception to follow at Sisters!
• Jan. 3 1 - 27th Annual WinterFolk
Benefit at the Aladdin Theater!
133 NW Sixth Ave.
97209
All are welcome!
Portland, OR
Monday - Friday 10am-2:30pm g