Did you know it can cost a family in Missouri $20 dollars for a 15 min phone call w/ a loved one who is behind bars? @GuardianUS & @msainat1 have more on the detrimental impact of the $1.2 billion prison phone industry, built on these exorbitant fees. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/26/theyre-profiting-off-pain-the-push-to-rein-in-the-12bn-prison-phone-industry?CMP=share_btn_tw">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...

Cities & states across the country are noticing the burden this cost places on family members & are starting to make reforms. In 2019, NYC & San Francisco made phone calls from local jails free. See this article in San Quentin News for more: https://sanquentinnews.com/changes-coming-to-san-francisco-county-jail-free-phone-calls/">https://sanquentinnews.com/changes-c...

Charging family members for phone calls is just one example of how fees proliferate many layers of our criminal justice system. Defendants might also be responsible for fees covering a public defender’s time, crime lab analysis, court clerk filings, and more.

These charges can accumulate quickly, leaving family members and defendants with hundreds or thousands of dollars in criminal justice debt that they cannot afford to pay. We as a country are waking up to the immorality of this process.

A new @BrennanCenter report shows that fees levied by the government are also financially irresponsible by examining how much it costs jurisdictions to impose, collect, and enforce court fees and fines. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/steep-costs-criminal-justice-fees-and-fines">https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/...

We recommend that government: (1) Eliminate court-imposed fees; (2) Eliminate driver’s license suspension as a penalty for nonpayment of criminal fees & fines; (3) Stop jailing people for failure to pay fines and fees; and (4) Purge old debt balances that are unlikely to be paid