Phone Card rip-off in McHenry County Jail

On January 12, 2010, I wrote an article about the telephone charges rip-off at the McHenry County Jail. You can read that article by searching on this site for "commissary".

The Jail has cut a real deal with ICSolutions to provide telephone service at exorbitant rates to inmates. The rates themselves were discussed in that article.

Last week I became aware of a website for families of Illinois prisoners at www.illinoisprisontalk.com/. And guess what that organization is complaining about?

Exorbitant telephone rates charged to prisoners who make telephone calls!

Go to that website and click on the "Illinois campaign for telephone justice" button at the bottom of the homepage.

You, of course, have a choice when you want to make a telephone call, but prisoners (and inmates at the McHenry County Jail) have one choice. Either make the phone call or don't make the phone call.

If an inmate or detainee at the McHenry County Jail wants to call Woodstock, the cost is "only" $2.50. It's a flat-rate call. An inmate is not charged per-minute after the call is accepted. But if a child answers, accepts the call and says, "Mommy's not home" and hangs up? Ka-ching. Beyond Woodstock? There is a Connect Fee AND a per-minute fee. The farther away he calls, the higher the charges. Both of them.

Inmates must purchase a Phone Card to make out-going calls. A Phone Card costs $20.00. Is there a kickback to the Sheriff's Department/County? You betcha! How much? $10.00!!!

That's 50%. When the prisoner "buy"s a $20.00 Phone Card, the Jail gets $10.00. Where does the $10 go? To the Inmates Profit Account. Nice name, eh? You can read what that Account does with the money in the other article, found by searching for "commissary". It's the second article down.

What does the Illinois Prison Talk website have to say about the State's inmate telephone system?

"The Illinois Campaign for Telephone Justice is seeking relief from the high cost of prison telephone calls from the Illinois Department of Corrections. Inmate families and others are charged exhorbitant (sic) phone rates and connection fees many times that of ordinary public rates. IDOC receives millions of dollars in commission kickbacks from Consolidated Public Services for an exclusive contract with Illinois. ICTJ wants the state to STOP this extortion NOW and abolish the outrageous connection fees and kickback commissions."

There are printable petitions on its website. Get one today and circulate it.

While you are at it, write to Sheriff Keith Nygren (sheriff@co.mchenry.il.us) and complain about the obscene Phone Card profit right here in the McHenry County Jail. Try that email address; if it doesn't work, call 815.338.2144 for his correct email address. No e-mail address can easily be found on the sheriff's website.

When I am elected Sheriff on November 2, 2010, I will form a citizens' committee for jail reform, which will include families and friends of inmates/detainees, inmates themselves, and corrections officers.