EA - Fix Prison Telecom by Benj Azose

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Fix Prison Telecom, published by Benj Azose on August 13, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Summary People in prisons and jails pay extremely high rates to stay in contact with their family in many parts of the country. 32 states had an average cost for a 15 minute phone call from a county jail of more than $5, and only 2 states had a cost less than $2. Families spend $1.4 billion a year on calls. Around 10 million people in the US are affected by poor prison and jail communication systems: ~2 million incarcerated, ~6 million spouses and parents, ~3 million children. The effect on families is large. One in three families with an incarcerated parent go into debt to pay for prison communication. Solutions are surprisingly reasonably priced, when areas have uptake. Ameelio (a non-profit working in this area) estimates deployment costs at ~$500k per state. Considering a current estimate of the prison telecom industry making $1.4b a year in profit, a comparatively very small amount of money here could have huge effects on millions of Americans. Importance People in prisons and jails pay extremely high rates to stay in contact with their family in many parts of the country. 32 states had an average cost for a 15 minute phone call from a county jail of more than $5, and only 2 states had a cost less than $2, according to the latest data from Prison Policy Initiative. In addition, federal prisoners are paid sub-minimum-wage rates: $0.12 - $0.40 for jobs paid by the prison system, $0.23 - $1.15 for jobs for companies outside of the prison system. This can mean that people in prison pay their entire day’s wages for a 15 minute phone call! In aggregate, families pay $1.4 billion a year, according to Business Insider. There are three main constituencies that are affected by the high cost of prison communications: incarcerated people, their adult support network, and their children. Note that I will not attempt DALY estimates here, because it’s not clear of a principled way to estimate them. There are good estimates on the population sizes (which I have included) and I also speak to some of the effects on those populations. Incarcerated People 1.9 million people are currently in prison or jail in the US in 2022, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Numerous studies suggest that closer contact with family and outside support networks reduces rates of recidivism or violating parole. Communication with family members also makes the experience more tolerable. Parents and Spouses 6.5 million adults have an immediate family member currently in jail or prison, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. They are also the ones who most directly bear the high cost of communication. “The high cost of maintaining contact with incarcerated family members led more than one in three families (34%) into debt to pay for phone calls and visits alone,” according to the Ella Baker Center. Children 2.7 million children currently have an incarcerated parent, according to the Urban Institute. Phone calls, and other virtual communication methods, are essential for keeping in touch with an absent parent. “Over half of parents in state prisons (59%) and just under half (45%) of parents in federal prisons did not have any personal visits with their minor children while in prison in 2004,” reported The Sentencing Project based on data from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics. Neglectedness (Note: some material in this section is from the policy paper “Improving Outcomes for Incarcerated People by Reducing Unjust Communication Costs” that I previously published with the Day One Project.) This is a particularly interesting angle for this problem. Prison telecommunication is publicly bid on, and the cost of equivalent services outside of correctional facilities is free or nearly free. Why is this mar...