Since You Asked: Can Correctional Facilities Negotiate Phone Contracts That Prohibit Deposit Fees? (Yes! Many do.)

The high cost of calling home from prisons and jails gets a lot of attention in the press, but the industry’s practice of tacking on hidden fees is getting an increasing amount of attention from regulators and the savviest correctional facilities. These fees can be called by a variety of different names and can add up to significant costs to the families of people in prison. The problem got so bad that the companies were potentially making more from fees than from selling their product — phone calls.