Calls from Colorado’s incarcerated will soon be free

BY TATIANA FLOWERS THE COLORADO SUN

e high cost of calling home from inside Colorado prisons and youth detention centers can have lasting e ects on people who are incarcerated and their families. State lawmakers hope to reduce those impacts starting in September, under a new law that makes those phone calls free.

House Bill 1133 will make Colorado the third state in the nation to cover the cost of phone calls made by people who are incarcerated and their families in state facilities. Gov. Jared Polis hasn’t yet signed the measure but is expected to soon.

Currently, people incarcerated in Colorado pay about 8 cents per minute for a phone call and typically talk on the phone for about 7 minutes each day. e cost of those calls is covered by wages earned by people behind bars if they have a job, or by their families.

“At its core, this bill is about keeping families connected,” said state Rep. Mandy Lindsay, an Arapahoe County Democrat and prime sponsor of the bill. “We’ve heard from countless Coloradans who’ve racked up thousands of dollars worth of debt communicating with their incarcerated loved ones. Making prison phone calls free will allow family members, especially children, to stay in-touch with their loved ones which lays a strong foundation to life after incarceration and works to reduce recidivism.” e state’s general fund will cover 25% of the total cost, or almost $265,000, for call services during the rst year of the program from Sept. 1 through June 30, 2024. e state will cover 35% of the total cost for calls, or $445,000, from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Starting July 1, 2025, the Colorado Depart- ment of Corrections will cover all costs for phone calls or about $1.3 million. e bill does not cover the cost of video calls or emails.

Research has shown that when people are able to stay in regular contact with their families, they fare better while they’re incarcerated and when they reenter society, which improves safety for corrections o cers and members of the public. If people are connected to their families while incarcerated, they may have a better chance of securing housing with those loved ones, who can also help them prepare for release from prison, advocates said. e positive impacts of regular communication, likewise, positively a ects families. e 1 in 28 children with an incarcerated parent, for example, fare better while at home and in school because regular communication with their mother or father can show kids how to build healthy attachments with others.

When the law begins operating in full e ect in 2025, the policy will also bring major relief to Colorado families who collectively pay $7.7 million a year for prison phone calls, according to Colorado Department of Corrections data given to leaders of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that helped draft the legislation along with families of people who are incarcerated, ProgressNow Colorado and Stand For Children Colorado, an organization working to advance educational equity and racial justice. About 50% of American families, who are disproportionately people of color and those with low incomes, already struggle to a ord basic housing and food needs. About 1 in 3 of these American families goes into debt just to stay in touch with a loved one who is incarcerated. And women carry 87% of the nancial burden to remain connected, according to the Ella Baker Center For Human Rights, which helps people a ected by crime and incarceration.

Janelle Jenkins, who lives in Denver and testi ed in support of the bill, estimates that she’s spent