By Rene Romo
The Albuquerque Journal
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The Public Regulation Commission held two public comment hearings this week in an ongoing inquiry into the rates charged for inmate phone calls made from detention centers and state prisons.
The PRC opened the inquiry in July after staff argued, in a petition, that customers of the phone service - either inmates or those they are calling — have no choice of carrier when calling from a particular institution and that “the rates are almost always long distance,” whether calls are local or not.
The rates charged by “institutional operator service providers,” or IOSPs, staff said, “carry a potential for predatory practices and abuses, both with respect to inmates and their families.”
The staff petition also indicates rates charged by IOSPs are “significantly higher than rates and charges for comparable services offered to the general public by other providers,” according to PRC records.
In the effort to determine whether there is a legitimate basis for the fees charged for phone calls from state prisons or county detention centers, the PRC last September ordered five phone service companies to provide information regarding charges billed for calls from state prisons or county detention centers during the previous five years.
“Our concern, from a commission point of view, is that it doesn’t matter if you are a prisoner or family member or a business, companies doing business in New Mexico need to charge what their tariffs are,” said Commissioner Sandy Jones. “It’s a substantial issue, and it affects a lot of people.”
At a public comment hearing Monday in Las Cruces, local resident Paul Borunda said he paid nearly $700 over eight months last year to allow his son to make collect phone calls from state prison.
The cost of making phone calls from state prisons makes it difficult for those held in prisons or detention centers to contact their lawyers or family members, Borunda said.
A second public comment hearing was held Tuesday evening in Los Lunas.
Copyright 2008 Albuquerque Journal