Steep Costs of Inmate Phone Calls Are Under Scrutiny

nytimes.com - Since the Pennsylvania police arrested Anthony Kofalt last March for walking out of a Walmart with 21 boxes of Crest White Strips he had not paid for, his wife, Heather, has spent $3,000 — about $60 a week — on phone calls to the prisons and jails where he has been held.

The cost of a 15-minute call is $12.95, although Mr. Kofalt is in a prison only a few hours’ drive from his wife’s home in Franklin, Pa. The cost for a similar non-prison call would be about 60 cents.

And every time Ms. Kofalt deposits $25 into the prison phone account, the private company that runs the system charges her $6.95.