Anton Bruckner
Puritan Board Professor
Posted March 10, 2006 08:56 PM Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/60612.htm
March 6, 2006 --
WHAT'S the most outra geous tax in New York? My candidate is the 630 percent markup on collect calls to state prisons.
That's right: Six hundred thirty percent. with loved ones in New York state Department of Correctional Services facilities must use a "special" collect-call phone service run by MCI. (And prisoners must call out - family members can't call into the prison on their own.)
The average prison phone call is 19 minutes long. Under the state's monopoly contract with MCI, now owned by Verizon, that costs just over $6.
The state gets a 57.5 percent kickback on MCI's profits; it claims this offsets increased security costs - but calls from the federal prison system cost a fraction of what we pay.
New York state taxes many things that are bad for you, like cigarettes and alcohol, in the hope that we won't smoke or drink. But what's the rationale behind taxing a New Yorker for staying in touch with a loved one in prison?
More than 75 percent of the state's prisoners come from Long Island, New York City and Westchester. With two-thirds of the prison facilities located three hours or more north of the city, phone calls are a critical way for families to keep in touch.
How does this tax affect prison family members? My grandson is serving time in a Hudson Valley facility. I can't make the trip by car or bus or train to see him; I rely on the phone to keep in touch, to keep our relationship strong, to make sure that he has connections when he gets out. This costs me an average of $400 a month.
The highest phone bill I racked up was $1491.04, in November of 2003.
This looks like a tax, smells like a tax, and hurts like a really, really bad tax.
These phone calls may be optional, but the need to maintain contact with my grandson is an absolute must - a voluntary hardship with an involuntary price. We can write letters, but when you can hear a person's voice on the other end of that line, it's the next best thing to touching them.
Just about everyone you talk to, from academic types to advocates to family members, will say that men and women in prison who maintain relationships with their loved ones are more likely to finish their parole without incident and to make a healthy transition back into the community upon release.
Where is the logic in making these calls a financial hardship? Why does the state hand MCI and Verizon hundreds of million of dollars from the pockets of New York's poorer families?
All of us prison family members have to make sacrifices to pay this tax. Sometimes, it's a question of deciding which other bills to ignore so that my phone doesn't get turned off. But it's important at all costs to maintain the connection, particularly for me, his grandmother.
The current monopoly contract expires at the end of this month. Legislation pending in both the Assembly and state Senate would prevent it from being extended.
Gov. Pataki hasn't found room for this simple bit of justice in the $844 million that he's proposed in tax cuts, credits and rebates. Yet the backdoor tax from the prison phone contract brings the state $20 million to 25 million a year - 1 percent of the projected $2 billion budget surplus. Why not use some of that surplus to help New Yorkers keep their families together?
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/60612.htm
March 6, 2006 --
WHAT'S the most outra geous tax in New York? My candidate is the 630 percent markup on collect calls to state prisons.
That's right: Six hundred thirty percent. with loved ones in New York state Department of Correctional Services facilities must use a "special" collect-call phone service run by MCI. (And prisoners must call out - family members can't call into the prison on their own.)
The average prison phone call is 19 minutes long. Under the state's monopoly contract with MCI, now owned by Verizon, that costs just over $6.
The state gets a 57.5 percent kickback on MCI's profits; it claims this offsets increased security costs - but calls from the federal prison system cost a fraction of what we pay.
New York state taxes many things that are bad for you, like cigarettes and alcohol, in the hope that we won't smoke or drink. But what's the rationale behind taxing a New Yorker for staying in touch with a loved one in prison?
More than 75 percent of the state's prisoners come from Long Island, New York City and Westchester. With two-thirds of the prison facilities located three hours or more north of the city, phone calls are a critical way for families to keep in touch.
How does this tax affect prison family members? My grandson is serving time in a Hudson Valley facility. I can't make the trip by car or bus or train to see him; I rely on the phone to keep in touch, to keep our relationship strong, to make sure that he has connections when he gets out. This costs me an average of $400 a month.
The highest phone bill I racked up was $1491.04, in November of 2003.
This looks like a tax, smells like a tax, and hurts like a really, really bad tax.
These phone calls may be optional, but the need to maintain contact with my grandson is an absolute must - a voluntary hardship with an involuntary price. We can write letters, but when you can hear a person's voice on the other end of that line, it's the next best thing to touching them.
Just about everyone you talk to, from academic types to advocates to family members, will say that men and women in prison who maintain relationships with their loved ones are more likely to finish their parole without incident and to make a healthy transition back into the community upon release.
Where is the logic in making these calls a financial hardship? Why does the state hand MCI and Verizon hundreds of million of dollars from the pockets of New York's poorer families?
All of us prison family members have to make sacrifices to pay this tax. Sometimes, it's a question of deciding which other bills to ignore so that my phone doesn't get turned off. But it's important at all costs to maintain the connection, particularly for me, his grandmother.
The current monopoly contract expires at the end of this month. Legislation pending in both the Assembly and state Senate would prevent it from being extended.
Gov. Pataki hasn't found room for this simple bit of justice in the $844 million that he's proposed in tax cuts, credits and rebates. Yet the backdoor tax from the prison phone contract brings the state $20 million to 25 million a year - 1 percent of the projected $2 billion budget surplus. Why not use some of that surplus to help New Yorkers keep their families together?
