State prison inmates paying less for phone calls

(Harrisburg) — The state prison system is delaying a planned switch in its telephone service provider, but inmates have already started to pay lower rates.

Securus will take over telephone operations at the state Department of Corrections’s 27 facilities in mid-January, including SCI Camp Hill.

In the meantime, current provider GTL has lowered its rates from 20 cents to about six cents a minute, the same rate Securus will offer.

DOC spokeswoman Susan McNaughton says the phone calls are an important link for inmates.

“These inmates are parents to about 81,000 children. And so they can keep contact with their children, so they can help them do homework over the phone and talk to them about school over the phone, and be somewhat involved with their lives as well,” says McNaugton.

McNaughton says about 90 percent of the state’s inmates will eventually be released and the phone calls can help make integration into society easier.

She says most inmates, who earn between 19 and 41 cents an hour on a work crew, pay for the call themselves, but families and friends can also add money to their accounts.