Search | Prison Phone Justice

MCI Refund to Florida Prisoner Families

Article • August 15, 1998 • from PLN August, 1998

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Contractor Misconduct, Telephone Rates

MCI Refund to Florida Prisoner Families by Friends and family of Florida prisoners may be entitled to $190,000 worth of free telephone calls under a recommendation issued ...

Letter of Apology from TCI

Article • July 15, 1998 • from PLN July, 1998

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Letter of Apology from TCI by Reader Mail Dear PLN , We are aware of the difficulties our customers have had over the past several months in attempting to obtain service from us. Demand has been so great that, because of being underfunded and understaffed, we were not able to …

Prison Phones Discussed

Article • May 15, 1998 • from PLN May, 1998

Filed under: Injunctions, Estoppell, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Monitoring

of such systems. This ruling arose from an indirect challenge to the Massachusetts Inmate Telephone System (MITS). The MITS requires prisoners to obtain a personal identification number to call 15 pre-approved ...

Deaf Prisoners in Washington Seek Class-Wide Relief

Article • February 15, 1998 • from PLN February, 1998

Filed under: Deaf Prisoners, Education, Civil Procedure, State Law Claims, Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act, Interpreters, Telephone Access

aids (such as visual alarm systems), or with access to TTY telephones that is equal to the access hearing prisoners have to regular telephones. The complaint alleges that this failure violates the ADA ...

Bureau of Prisons Gag Rule Enacted

Article • February 15, 1998 • from PLN February, 1998

Filed under: Political Prisoners, Telephones, Telephone Access, Mail Regulations, Access to Media, Censorship

, but not limited to, correspondence, visiting, interviews with representatives of the news media, and use of the telephone, as is reasonably necessary to prevent the disclosure of classified information." Section ...

TCI Breaks 'Inmate Telephone System' Stranglehold

Article • January 15, 1998 • from PLN January, 1998

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

: (Obviously, your mileage may vary local and long distance telephone rates vary from place to place). It cost my wife about $40 in various charges to get the TCI service hooked up. TCI says this is high; most ...

Prisoner Calls Big Business in CA

Article • November 15, 1997 • from PLN November, 1997

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

with "public pay telephones." Yet the "public" pays only a $1.05 surcharge when using a pay phone. Only those accepting collect calls from CA prisoners are forced to pay the $3.00 surcharge. Prisoners' families ...

Experiment in Access: Law Libraries Eliminated in Arizona Prisons

Article • October 15, 1997 • from PLN October, 1997

Filed under: Attorney Client, Law Library Access/Adequacy, Paralegals, Photocopies, Telephones, Attorney Calls, Legal Mail

Experiment in Access: Law Libraries Eliminated in Arizona Prisons by O'Neil Stough The August 1996, issue of PLN reported Lewis v. Casey, 116 S.Ct. 2174 (1996). The Lewis court, though not explicitly overturning Bounds v. Smith, 430 US 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491 (1977), redefined the meaning of "court access" as …

Alabama Phone System Upheld

Article • September 15, 1997 • from PLN September, 1997

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access

Alabama Phone System Upheld by The court of appeals for the eleventh circuit held that a lower court had erred in finding that a telephone calling list of ten people violated prisoners ...

Illinois DOC Phone System Upheld

Article • May 15, 1997 • from PLN May, 1997

Filed under: Standing, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Telephone Monitoring, Qualified Immunity

on prisoners' telephone access may violate the First and Fourteenth Amendment. Tucker v. Randall, 948 F.2d 388, 391 (7th Cir. 1991). Denial of attorney telephone calls, furthermore, would run afoul of the Sixth ...

Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Phone and Mail Restrictions

Article • April 15, 1997 • from PLN April, 1997

Filed under: Telephones, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring, Mail Regulations

Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Phone and Mail Restrictions by In the February, 1995, issue of PLN we reported that Connecticut state prisoners had filed a class action suit in state court challenging prison regulations that required the recording of prisoner phone calls and that prisoners, outgoing mail could be read …

Reach Out and Bilk Someone

Article • March 15, 1997 • from PLN March, 1997

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Telephone Rates, Immunity/Liability, Contractor Liability

Reach Out and Bilk Someone by Florida DOC officials were found in 1995 to have fraudulently awarded a contract to North American Intelicom (NAI) to provide "inmate telephone services" to 35 ...

Kansas Prisoners Lose Welfare Fund Suit

Article • February 15, 1997 • from PLN February, 1997

Filed under: Crime/Demographics, Victims, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates

Kansas Prisoners Lose Welfare Fund Suit by A federal district court in Kansas held that state prisoners were not entitled to injunctive relief regarding how money from the Inmate Benefit Fund (IBF) was spent by the DOC. Kansas state prisoners filed a class action suit challenging how the Kansas DOC …

Call Recipient's Rights Not Violated in Phone Taping

Article • February 15, 1997 • from PLN January, 1997

Filed under: Criminal Prosecution, Telephones, Telephone Monitoring

that the prisoner used the telephone with awareness of the possible surveillance... When an inmate has repeatedly received notice that calls placed on prison telephones are subject to surveillance, the evidence ...

ADA Requires Phones for Deaf

Article • February 15, 1997 • from PLN February, 1997

Filed under: Deaf Prisoners, Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Damages, Standing, Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Eleventh Amendment Immunity

ADA Requires Phones for Deaf by A federal district court in Michigan held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12131 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794, requires state prison officials to provide prisoners and the people they call with Telecommunications Device for the …

ADA Ruling for Deaf New York Prisoners

Article • December 15, 1996 • from PLN December, 1996

Filed under: Deaf Prisoners, Disabled Prisoners, Interpreters (Disciplinary Hearings), Civil Procedure, Injunctions, Declaratory Judgment, Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act, Telephone Access

devices for telephone and television and the absence of visual safety alarms violates both the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act;" the DOCS failed "to make reasonable accommodations to facilitate full ...

No Right to Unmonitored Prison Calls

Article • November 15, 1996 • from PLN November, 1996

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Monitoring

investigative or law enforcement officers to intercept communications in the course of their duties. "MDC is a law enforcement agency whose employees tape all outbound inmate telephone calls; interception ...

BOP Phone Suit Settled

Article • September 15, 1996 • from PLN September, 1996

Filed under: Settlements, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates

to inmates in the state correctional institution having the highest debit telephone rates as computed...." The settlement states that the BOP has no intention of raising its current debit rates. On the other ...

Florida Utilities Commission Refunds Phone Kickbacks

Article • September 15, 1996 • from PLN September, 1996

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Contractor Misconduct, Telephone Rates

Florida Utilities Commission Refunds Phone Kickbacks by The June, 1996, issue of PLN reported that the contract to provide phone services to Florida state prisoners was awarded without competitive bidding in circumstances strongly suggesting corruption. Since 1987 Florida prisoners have been allowed to make collect calls to friends and families, …

Phone Activist Seeks Info

Article • September 15, 1996 • from PLN September, 1996

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

in her cell for the night, but calls were also made during daytime and nighttime cell counts. Although they were on my telephone bills, they were not (could not have been) placed by my friend nor received ...