How Can You Charge This Much For A Phone Call In MI

Remember when cell phone's started to be a thing when they first came out? I recall paying as much as $375.00 a month in the '90s because you paid by the minute and it was a lot more during the day and cheaper to use in the evenings and on weekends.  Even your house phone was expensive 20 years ago.  I lived in Philly then and was dating a girl in LA and one night we talked for 6 hours, my bill that month was around $500 bucks from a landline. Found out later I was on the wrong plan. Yikes

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High Prices For Phone Calls In Prison

So there are still a few places that will charge you a lot to make a call, like some hotels if you make a long-distance call from the phone in your room.  According to fox47news.com the Ionia County jail charges a whopping $21.99 for a 15-minute phone call from an inmate. At the Eaton County Jail, it's $15.42. In Ingham County, it's $13.65. I guess most county jails in mid-Michigan charge crazy high prices for phone calls from inmates. The sad part is family members and friends on the ones receiving the bills. That can be tough if you are on a tight budget like many are these days.

When I was locked up from age 18 to 28 I watched the extreme financial burdens on my family in regards to the high costs of inmate or prison phone calls, it’s just insane,” said Aaron Kinzel, the executive director of the Youth Justice Fund. “I feel like it’s almost like a secondary sentence that’s not even really placed on the individual who committed the crime but the family, friends, and loved ones who are spending 50 cents, a dollar per minute sometimes.

 

Here Is What It Costs For Calls From Jail

In counties like Ingham, Clinton, Livingston, and Jackson it costs a pretty penny for phone calls, from $.21 to $.97 cents per minute. The Prison Policy Initiative has been doing some homework on the cost of inmate phone calls for many years. The nonprofit says the calls are so high because of the money that goes to jails.