By Bill Novak
Profits won out over prisoners Thursday night when the Dane County Board approved a new jail phone contract that charges county inmates $6.25 for a
The board voted 22–14 in favor of a new
But the board also voted 21–15 to turn down a plan from liberal supervisors, County Executive Kathleen Falk and the state Public Defender’s Office to give $25,000 worth of calling cards to indigent inmates in a move meant to appease loud protests from inmate advocates and families claiming they can’t afford the charges. The «This is a good contract,» said Supervisor Rob Fyrst of Madison. «It does not gouge and it does not fleece as some speakers have said. If we don’t pass it, Dane County taxpayers are the ones getting fleeced.» Inmate advocates including Mary Kay Baum of the «The amount of money being charged to our most vulnerable families is exorbitant,» Baum said. Supervisor Andy Olsen, chair of the Public Protection and Judiciary Committee, worked on the deal with Falk and Public Defender Nicholas Chiarkas to give $25,000 worth of calling cards to poor inmates. When it seemed like the deal was falling on deaf ears, Olsen tried to up the ante himself by trying to amend the free phone card giveaway to make it a $40,000 deal. Olsen’s idea backfired and caused more supervisors to turn on the plan. «No way I can support it,» said Supervisor Ruth Ann Schoer. «That $40,000 figure came out of nowhere.» Topf Wells, Falk’s chief of staff, told The Capital Times the free phone card issue might be revisited by Falk as part of her 2005 budget. «The county executive has long wanted to come up with a proposal that would have offered some assistance to inmates,» Wells said. «The virtue of the card plan was that it took advantage of a provision in the new contract by rendering assistance that would have been very direct and doable.» Madison Police and Fire Commission attorney Scott Herrick said the jail phone plan is either «a perverse, viciously aggressive tax» or «extortion.» «Take your pick,» Herrick said. «We should stop taking this money. It is stolen money; it is blood money.» Krista Ralston, director of the UW Legal Defense Program, said the high phone charges to inmates might be considered «cruel and unusual punishment» and an Eighth Amendment violation. The Legal Defense Program serves about 500 people a year, many residing in the Dane County Jail. Clients of the program can make free phone calls to the program staff. «These inmates can’t leave jail under Huber law, so they really are a captive audience,» Ralston said. «The reason they are in jail is they couldn’t bail out of jail. It’s really affecting the poorest of the poor.» Supervisor David Blaska of Madison said the county didn’t need to provide free phone cards to inmates. «Poverty isn’t the issue here, their incarceration is,» Blaska said. «If we want to come up with $25,000, let Urban Ministry raise it.» Supervisor Mike Hanson, a Madison police officer, said it’s a simple matter of economics for Dane County. «If we do not pass this, we’ll be short $1.2 million,» Hanson said. «The $1.2 million doesn’t go to the Sheriff’s Office but to the general fund, where we can help support the other departments such as parks, human services, etc.» Supervisor Echnaton Vedder of Madison said forcing families to choose not to talk to a loved one in jail because of the high cost of doing so isn’t fair to the inmates or their families. "You push a button and say, ’Don’t call me anymore,’ " Vedder said. "Is that what we want to be saying as County Board supervisors? Do you want to tell Mom she has to say to her son, ’Don’t call me anymore?’ " Originally set to begin Sept. 20, the IC Solutions contract will begin Oct. 1. The SBC contract was extended past its expiration date so inmates had phone service. Department of Administration staff said if the jail had to continue on with the old contract instead of implementing the new pact with IC Solutions, Dane County would lose $25,000 a month in phone profits E-mail: