By Dan Nephin
Intelligencer Journal/New Era
LANCASTER, Pa. — For each phone call an inmate at Lancaster County Prison makes, the county gets a 55 percent commission.
That rings up at least $400,000 a year for the county, under the terms of its contract with its inmate phone services provider.
Bob Cooper thinks that’s too much money out of the pockets of inmates — and, as is more often the case, from their families, who accept toll calls from inside the prison.
Cooper, coordinator of Children of Incarcerated Parent Network of Lancaster County, said research shows that communication with family during incarceration reduces the risk of recidivism for an inmate.
He called on the prison board Thursday to stop accepting or reduce its commission - or to shop for another vendor when the contract with Altoona-based Global Tel-Link Corp. expires in February in hopes of finding a company that could provide cheaper rates.
There’s a growing movement in other states to eliminate or reduce commissions, Cooper said.
The county’s commission goes into the inmates’ “general welfare account,” which is capped at $250,000.
The account pays for things such as capital improvements and programs. What’s collected beyond $250,000 goes to the county’s general fund to offset prison costs.
While such phone contracts are legal, Cooper said, “The question before you is: Is it in the best interest of the children and the families of Lancaster County?”
Two prison board members said the matter isn’t so black and white.
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman told Cooper he was making an assumption that most inmates are engaged with their children.
Cooper said a goal of his group is to help inmates with children realize that they are parents, suggesting that cheaper calls would help that.
County Commissioner Scott Martin also disagreed that inmates regularly check on their children.
More often, he said, inmates call people on the outside to coordinate testimony and to try to influence victims.
The phone system has tools to combat that, such as the ability to record and log calls, Martin said.
And, noting that inmates who are released seldom pay various costs charged them, such as a $10 daily assessment fee and court-imposed fines, “a system like this is really one of the only ways of collecting money,” he said.
Still, he told Cooper, it was a good dialogue to have.
Commissioner Craig Lehman told Cooper the primary goal shouldn’t be to generate revenue, and that a balance should be struck between where the county is and should be in terms of the commission.
Martin said that, when the contract expires, he will evaluate what other phone service providers would offer.
But, he said, “The less money the county of Lancaster makes on the phone system, the more the taxpayers of Lancaster are going to pay for these services.”
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