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Massachusetts Becomes the Fifth State to Make Prison Phone Calls Free

Loaded on March 1, 2024 published in Prison Legal News March, 2024, page 15
Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access, Private Phone Contractors. Location: Massachusetts.

Until December 1, 2023, Massachusetts prisoners and their families paid 12 cents per minute for phone calls, 14 cents in jails, though the first 10 minutes there every month were free. That added up to about $25 million annually—money that will now be saved, after the 2024 state budget took …

 

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  1. Overcrowded and Understaffed, Oklahoma County Jail Remains “Deplorable”, by David Reutter
  2. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  3. Lawsuit Claims Seattle’s King County Jail Shows Little Improvement in Quarter Century Since “Hammer Agreement”
  4. No Jail Time for Former Arizona Prisons Director After Armed Standoff With Cops
  5. Pennsylvania County Found Skimming Prisoner-Designated Funds from ViaPath Kickbacks
  6. Colorado Sheriff Resigns After Deputies Fatally Shoot Motorist
  7. With Guard Arrests at Georgia Jail, Sheriff Asks, “What Are We Doing Wrong?”
  8. U.S. Sentencing Commission Greenlights Retroactive Sentence Reductions
  9. Redemption Songs: The Forgotten History of American Prison Music, by Maurice Chammah
  10. Nearly $11 Million Settlement Reached in Suit by BOP Prisoners Held Without Heat, Electricity During New York Winter Storm, by Douglas Ankney
  11. Massachusetts Becomes the Fifth State to Make Prison Phone Calls Free
  12. Federal Prisoner in Virginia Convicted on Fresh Kiddie Porn Charges After Drawing His Own
  13. California Slowed, But Not Barred from “Dumping” Sick, Indigent Parolees on Public Hospitals
  14. Rikers Island Detainees Given Pricey Weight-Loss Surgery but Little Follow-Up Care
  15. Illinois Eases Restrictions on Prisoners Released Under Supervision
  16. Moms Released from Massachusetts Prison Decry Dearth of Help
  17. Eighth Circuit Issues Primer on Informal Due Process Procedures to Missouri Prisoner, by David Reutter
  18. DOJ Finds ADA Violations in Arizona Prisons, Demands Improvements
  19. Sick Georgia Prisoners Forced to Choose Between Treatment and Early Release
  20. Unsealed Settlement Reveals PrimeCare Medical Paid $337,500 After Pennsylvania Prisoner’s Suicide, by David Reutter
  21. Eighth Circuit Remands ADA Claims—But Not Constitutional Claims—of Paralyzed Arkansas Jail Detainee, by David Reutter
  22. “Unethical At Best”: Hawaii Budget Director Charged With Financing New Prison is Former CoreCivic Lobbyist
  23. Alabama Conducts First Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution
  24. “More jobs than people”: Prisoners Training to Work on Ohio Infrastructure Projects after Release
  25. Escape from Oregon State Hospital Results in Changes to Detainee Transports
  26. HRDC Wins $14 Million Settlement for Exonerated Florida Prisoner
  27. Four Dead in One Month in San Bernardino County Jails, $3,232,500 in Settlements Paid So Far, by Douglas Ankney, Casey Bastian
  28. Seventh Circuit Revives Prisoner’s Challenge to Seized $10,000, by David Reutter
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  30. Muslim Florida Prisoner Awarded Permanent Injunction to Grow Untrimmed Beard, by David Reutter
  31. North Carolina Prison Official Pleads Guilty to COVID-19 Program Fraud
  32. South Carolina Sheriff Ordered to Pay $37,500 in Fees and Costs in Jail FOIA Case, by Matthew Clarke
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  34. New York Prisoners with Chronic Pain Win Injunction to Receive Denied Medication, by Matthew Clarke
  35. Ninth Circuit Shuts Down Settlement Agreement in Long-Running California Prisoners’ Gang Affiliation Suit, by David Reutter
  36. $470,000 Settlement After Texas Jail Nurses Fabricate Vital Signs for Detainee Who Died, by Douglas Ankney
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  38. BOP Pays $40,000 to Prisoner Sexually Assaulted at Florida Lockup by Guard, Who Must Pay Her $1 Million, by David Reutter
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  46. New Jersey Private Prison Ban Voided
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  52. Seventh Circuit Reinstates Wisconsin Prisoner’s ADA Claim for Untreated Knee Injury, by Matthew Clarke
  53. Eleventh Circuit Revives Claim Against Florida Jail That Forced Detainee to Scan Legal Mail Into Computer with Memory Chip, by David Reutter
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