One of the greatest financial burdens on prisoners' families is the telephone racket. The Department of Corrections ("DOC") in cahoots with greedy telephone service providers has gouged millions upon millions of dollars from prisoners' families in the form of telephone charges. The DOC and the telephone carrier contrive a deal which guarantees millions of dollars for each of them, and perhaps some lucrative benefits to certain officials and politicians, too. It all comes from the poorest families in the state. A few years ago a prisoner and his wife brought an action against the racket. As a result, certain fees were somewhat reduced. In addition, Pennsylvania law was changed. Up until that time only collect calls were allowed. Fifteen minutes of phone time cost the prisoner's family over $14! The change in the law allowed prisoners to prepay telephone calls. The theory was that the change would dramatically cut the cost of phone calls. The dishonest telephone carriers had always falsely contended that the only reason fees were so high was because prisoners' families didn't pay their bills. Like most legends of corrections, that was a lie. With the prepay system, the prisoner was allowed to "buy" and pay for telephone time before it was used, in the same way that others can buy inexpensive telephone calling cards. In this system, there was no chance of non-payment of the bill, so the cost should have been competitive with what calling cards charge. But, the prisoners must pay more than 10 times as much! Typically, a $50 calling card (the amount a prisoner may buy in phone time) will buy calls for between 2 cents and 4 cents per minute or about 45 cents for a 15 minute call. By contrast, the prisoner must pay $5.62! DOC has entered a very lucrative partnership with an outfit named T-Netix, Inc. to provide telephone services to the prisoners. The service is not only unreasonably overpriced, it's intermittent, very unreliable and censored. As a result, a prisoner and his wife have again joined together to bring an action against the telephone racket. We urge you to do the same! Everyone who's been scalded by the racket should file a formal complaint with the Pennsylvania Public utility Commission ("PUC") and demand refunds and changes. We'll explain more in a minute. Like some kind of a shell game, T-Netix, Inc. has many addresses, but they are all outside Pennsylvania When you sue them, try one of these addresses: T-Netix, Inc. 2155 Chenault Drive Carrolltown, TX 75006 T-Netix, Inc. 6675 South Kenton Street Englewood, CO 80111 .T-Netix, Inc. Alvyn Schopp, CFO 67 Inverness Drive, East Englewood, CO 80111 or in care of the prison where the prisoner is housed. To go after T-Netix, first get a complaint form the PUC. You can write to them at: Secretary Public utility Commission Box 3265 Harrisburg, PA 17105-3265 or get it online. The form is short and easy to complete. It will take you only a few minutes. To give you some idea of what others have complained about, here's a short list. The Prisoner's Complaint The prepaid charges are unreasonably high and not what the legislature had in mind when it wrote the law. The prepaid system operates as a rate and billing fraud. The announcement poster from the prison lists costs of $2.25 for the first THREE minutes and 22 cents for each additional minute plus 6% sales tax. On the phone, T-Netix's computer announces a much higher rate of $2.47 for the first ONE minute and 22 cents for each additional minute, more than a 300% premium! But, that's not the whole racket. T-Netix's system actually charges a lot more for the calls. The first minute costs at least $2.54 or three and a third times the advertised cost. The actual amount charged changes from call to call for no apparent reason. After the prisoner prepays his money, the system often won't allow him to spend it. Very often the T-Netix system is rigged to deny the prisoner the use of his money while T-Netix and the DOC get the benefit of it. It claims that his account can't be "verified." The T-Netix system is either incompetent junk or it's intentional fraud. It interjects very long delays into the calling system. The prisoner pays, but can't talk! The prisoner's Wife Complains About the Collect System The announced rates for a collect call are $2.77 for the first minute and 27 cents for each additional minute. That's $6.55 for a 15 minute call compared to $5.96 for a prepaid call, a saving of less that 60 cents! The announced rates are very much too high and unjustified. T-Netix's system frequently doesn't connect a call when it's accepted. As a result, the family is charged, but the connection is never made and they can't talk. More commonly, there are very long delays from the time a call is accepted until the family can actually talk. All that time the family is being charged. The actual timing of the calls is habitually wrong. Families are charged for more time than they actually use. You'll no doubt have your own complaints to add to the above list. Ask for an audit of your account and for a refund of the overcharges and short times. Always ask for correction of the system and a reduction in the rates. If you've been cheated by the greedy partnership of T-Netix and the DOC, we urge you to file formal complaints.