SAN FRANCISCO -- Telephone companies and California counties have made hundreds of millions of dollars from some of the state’s poorest people through high, unregulated phone rates for calls from local jails, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The average California county jail inmate’s local call home costs more than seven times as much as a 50-cent pay--phone call. It adds up to more than $120 million a year in phone bills for families and friends of county inmates statewide. The inflated rates make service contracts with jails so lucrative that carriers offer counties signing bonuses, nearly $17 million in the case of Los Angeles County.

For many, the cost of contact with loved ones is a hardship. And while counties are supposed to spend their share of the money on inmate welfare, the law gives sheriffs wide discretion and much of the money goes to salaries.

«It’s a gouging of family members, those who have never committed a crime,» said Charles Carbone, a lawyer with Prison Focus, a prisoner rights group in San Francisco.

Inmates and their families have few options. Regular contact is possible only through highly restricted visits and phone calls out, which must be made by inmates either collect or with special calling cards.

Jail phone contracts, unlike those governing the rates of residential users, are not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission or the Federal Communications Commission.

California counties received more than $303 million in revenue from collect calls, calling cards, and signing bonuses over five years, according to information gathered through the California Public Records Act from each of the 57 California counties with jails.

Telephone companies defend the high charges, saying that specialized equipment and security features such as call blocking and monitoring are needed in jails. Six companies provide most of the phone service to California’s county jails; San Antonio-based SBC Communications is the largest. Of the four companies that agreed to interviews, all refused to discuss how they set rates or how much they earn from inmate calls.

SBC spokeswoman Bridget Stachowski refused to further explain the higher rates, saying only that jail telephone systems are «more complex.»

If carriers and county jails have little incentive to lower rates, the costs are significant for low-income friends and families of inmates.

Single mother Jessica Brickle, 20, expects her phone to be disconnected because of $400 she owes, largely because of phone calls to her public-housing apartment from her child’s father, jailed a few miles away. Brickle said her normal $20 monthly bill was five times higher because she accepted calls from her boyfriend.

She thinks it’s unfair, but has no idea how to complain. «I tried to pay on it, but I stopped,» Brickle said while waiting outside the San Francisco County Jail for a 30-minute visit.