4-4-19 jail inmate phone calls

A new study shows that some county jails in Wisconsin are charging well over the national average for inmates to make phone calls to family members and lawyers.    The nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative report shows 15 minute phone calls at some Wisconsin jails can cost up to about $22.   Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt says the cost is much less here.  “They can call out collect and that’s 25 cents a minute.  They can use a pre-paid calling card and pay for their own phone calls, those are 21 cents a minute, and there’s also the ability for them to call the public defender’s office for free,”  Waldschmidt told WFDL news.  The state’s jails average about $8 per 15 minute phone call compared to the nationwide average around $5.61.  The costs vary widely by county.  Waldschmidt says some inmates make several calls while others make few if any phone calls.  A spokeswoman for the nonprofit group says the majority of people in jail are awaiting trial and haven’t been convicted of a crime.  She also noted that family members and lawyers receive the bill for the phone call fees, not the inmates.