SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco will become the first county in the nation to let those in county jail make phone calls for free.
The charges for phone calls can have a significant impact on the bonds that inmates sustain with their family members, according to Aminah Elster of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children. She spent six years in Alameda County jail and more time in state prison.
"Imagine not being able to talk to your child for six years because your family can't pay for phone calls, and the separation that families experience when you're not able to keep the lines of communication open," said Elster.
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Even after cutting the cost of a jailhouse call down significantly, San Francisco was charging inmates 14 cents a minute. Now, all calls from the county lockup will be completely free, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy told KCBS Radio.
"The mayor came through with the amount of money that we need, so that we can now provide free phone calls to people," she said.
That is about $500,000 from the county's general fund, which Mayor London Breed will allocate in her budget. The jail will also stop charging a markup on things it sells inmates at the commissary, Hennessy said.
"We want people to be good citizens," said Hennessy. "So how do we say, 'when you go to jail we're going to charge you twice as much for this, and three times more for that, just for things that are givens'? I don't think we can do that honestly."