Stop the discrimination on one certain group of people. Drop the costs of families making phone calls from prisons to connect with their families. NY and America have a money making industry off our familis and friends incarcerated and that is discrimination. Is America breaking its own laws? Are we slaves in this country again in a different way? We think so, so stop stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

Marion brings up an issue that many know nothing about.
She tells of the devastation families suffer becasue of "lost contact" with their loved ones behind bars. This is an important for the children of prisoners who need continual and constant contact with their incarcerated parent. Love does not stop at the prison gate, nor does the razor wire prohibit it, but Verizon can and does with their usurious contract with NY DOCS, via the outrageous rates they charge and the 58+% DOCS recieves. This is an issue that all should decry, it punishes those who have done nothing wrong, it places unfair burdens on the already financially challenged.
Good for you Marion for bringing this to light.
Join the campaign, fight the monster company who makes prisoners of prison families.

This is one (of many) sinister actions by Departments of Corrections across the United States. It is part of the prison industrial complex, along with the exploitation of prisoner labor(Victoria's Secret, Eddie Bauer, Revlon, Konica, etc..) and the billions $ reaped from investments in prison construction by companies such as Merrill Lynch/Smith Barney, Starbucks, Pharmaceuticals, McDonalds Corp, Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp, etc...)

RESTORE THE RIGHT VOTE FOR PERSONS CONVICTED OF A FELONY = 5 MILLION U.S. CITIZENS!!

Peace.

Is it not way over due for the parole boards to include community representatives and not just a bunch of political appointees?

By the way, in my last comment - there was a typo -
I meant to write Restore the Right to Vote for persons with felony convictions. The laws vary from state to state.
For example, in Florida, you are barred from voting for life. Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners in the counties where they are serving their sentence and not the underserved communities that they are released to.

Peace.

As a member of PFCF i can't even begin to tell you all that's wrong with it - hell what isn't wrong with it? 600% more than a regular phone call? 26 million dollars in profit per year? Stop me at any time - and INMATE BENEFIT FUND - that's a joke of a sick proportion. I am witnessing now the injust inmate health care system, that my taxes, as well as revenue from my phone bills have allegedly paid for and it's worse than being a detainee at Guatanomo Bay!
How do we still allow monopolies to exist in 2006? Verizon just showed and prove that all of those antitrust laws are nothing but bullshit!
So, you tell me, is it wrong?

Strong faily bonds are what keeps the young persons today from going insane. So half of the juveniles in custody have a parent in prison. Low cost telephone conections help to keep kids on track. Don't let DOCS and MCI cut that vital link.

I am against the monitoring and high charges of members of our community by MCI for upstate prison collect phone calls. No privacy and all profit. There are many brothers and sisters, who are afraid to share details of their personal lives behind the walls for fear that the phones are bugged and monitored. I do not believe that people are aware of the level of intrusion that exists living inside of medium and minimum security prison much less maximum security prisons from upstate. I once was banned for mistakenly leaving a Salsa tape to a group of brothers from facilitating a mens support group with and not allowed to return into an upstate maximum security prison. All the brothers were eventually transferred and sent to separate prisons to break up the process of building and creating a new space. Yet these brothers were organizing community activities that allowed information and education to come inside the walls that was not made available to them under normal circumstances such as cultural and historical films and literature. Their staff advisor whom happened to be progressive was outstanding in building a new model of community cooperation. We were able to bring in people who were directly connected to services and educational and economic development in the community.

I believe also that our communities need to select and elect the Parole Board representatives and not have this be part of the political patronage system with self-serving appointees or individuals whom are not working in the best interest of our communities. I am a strong advocate for change and transformation of the human spirit but feel strongly that a system that does not allow communication to exists in healthy and productive manner is blocking and hampering the collective will and desires of those whom seek channeling their energies in positive and powerful mannerwhile doing time in a Correctional facility. All the phone calls that are extremely expensive block the ability for the brothers and sisters to reconnect in a fair and productive manner with their loved ones and families but even more importantly places an unneccessary economic burden on their family and social support system. Thanks sister Marion to your information and advocacy through the MCI campaign we are much more aware of the needs and concerns of these families in the religious and ecumenical community. Stay blessed and strong.

At this moment, my husband and I haven't spoken in about 3 weeks because my phone was shut off due to collect calls cost. These passed few months issues came up that required my husband and I to talk more often, and as a married couple and as friends, we like comforting each other and keeping each other involved in our already limited life together. This time, however, my bill was over $1000 and I cannot pay it. Life with an imprisoned family member is already hard enough, but this additional stress drains a family emotionally and financially. It almost feels as though the necessary limitations on phone rates are not imposed because the officials who would vote for those will somehow seem to promote criminals in prison. It would be "helping the enemy"- the issue is, however, that the people out here, who are managing our lives by ourselves, did not commit any crimes and are paying equally. I have never been very outspoken about anything, but this is a complete injustice towards prisoner's families and I HATE feeling like a victim.

Hopefully with the power of everyones voices the contract can be stopped somehow it wont stop there until the MCI CONTRACT is actaully stopped and we will not give up.As a family member I have been affected by the high cost of bills and it needs to end.

I think people who have no choice but to use MCI to talk with their loved ones need the support of others of us all around the county. To me, one obvious way we can do that is to not use MCI-Verizon as our phone companies and to tell them why aren't...that is, not to just switch but let them know why you are switching. These companies spend millions and millions each year trying to find and keep customers and this is one way we who are not dependent on them (at least for now), can make a difference.

Yeah, I need to cancel my verizon landline at home. I wonder if any of the other providers of local phone service have their hands in this sort of practice. I know for celphones Cingular is good because its Union but for local home phone calls, not sure...

MCI holds a family in the palm of their hands. The telephone is often the only way a family can communicate. For many, many years MCI PIMPED ME with my phone bill. They have no mercy and all who still have loved ones in prison MUST keep them from getting this contract renewed. Verizon is now the parent company of MCI. Just think while they are stealing our money, the CEO of MCI was stealing the company into bankruptcy. So all prison families have contributed to the home(s), bank account and comfort of Burton Ebbons. Something to think about and demand change.
Aleutia Continua (the struggle continues).
Patricia Taylor-Walker

Marion, thank you for writing about this issue. Over the last eighteen years, I have paid over $30,000 for calls from NY State prisons. These calls at the market rate would have cost me about $5,000. I am a tax payer, I have always worked and I have never received soc. benifits of any kind. Yet I am short the deposit on a co-op because of this horrendous monopoly, that Verizon/Mci have paid the NY State Dept. of Corrections for.

The only way to ensure that the unjust contract between MCI, now Verizon & DOCS is to get the law changed. The only way to do get the law changed is to convince our Senators to pass the legislation that is now pending (The Family Connection Bill) before the contract comes up for renewal on March 31, 2006. Therefore it is our responsibility to put pressure on our Senators, which I have been doing for years. PLEASE FIND OUT WHO YOUR SENATORS ARE AND WRITE & CALL THEM!!!! THIS IS OUR CHANCE, LET'S NOT BLOW IT!!!!!!!!!!