New York is Winning Phone War

NY Supreme Court Rules for Prisoner Families in Collect Call Suit

In a huge victory, the NY supreme court has ruled in favor of people who
receive collect calls from prisoners in that state. Congratulations to
Rachel Meeropol and the Center for Constitutional Rights for bringing the
suit.
NY's top court allows prison phone suit
By MARK JOHNSON
ALBANY, N.Y.

Families who've had to pay high phone rates to talk to loved ones in state
prison can proceed with their lawsuit seeking refunds, the state's highest
court ruled Tuesday.

The suit, first brought by the inmates' families in 2004, was dismissed by
two lower courts that ruled the action was not filed on time.
In a 4-2 decision, the Court of Appeals disagreed and said the lawsuit
should be allowed to go forward. It sent the case back to state Supreme
Court in Albany.

Defense organizations and relatives of inmates argued before the court last
month that the state had illegally collected millions of dollars through a
prison telephone service contract. They said the state's contract with
Verizon Communications Inc. was unconstitutional and violated state business
law. The suit also seeks to prevent similar arrangements from being made by
the state in the future.

The state has reaped about $200 million since 1996, when it first entered
into an exclusive contract for prison phone service with MCI Worldcom
Communications, according to the Department of Correctional Services. The
contract was taken over by Verizon last year.

The contract was amended in 2003 to set a new flat rate for calls -- $3 per
call plus 16 cents per minute for all calls, most of them from upstate
prisons to relatives in the New York City area.

With the average 19-minute call costing $6, families were paying $300 to
$400 in monthly charges, according to the New York Campaign for Telephone
Justice.

Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights
representing prisoners' families, said families across the state could be
eligible to recoup up to $75 million because the state has collected $20
million to $25 million a year from the fees since the suit was filed in 2004

"We are seeking to certify this as a class action, so everyone in New York
state who has accepted calls from prisoners would get their money back" if
the suit is successful, she said. "Since there are about 60,000 prisoners in
New York, we're talking about a huge number of people."
The Department of Correctional Services had no immediate comment on the
ruling.

Last month, Gov. Eliot Spitzer ordered elimination of the $3 surcharge on
collect calls made by prisoners as of April 1. Families will be charged only
the market cost of the call. The elimination of the fee should reduce most
families' bills by 50 percent or more, Spitzer's office said.

Article Link :http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8NDIO4O0.htm

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