HELP US END MASS INCARCERATION The Prison Policy Initiative uses research, advocacy, and organizing to dismantle mass incarceration. We’ve been in this movement for 23 years, thanks to individual donors like you.

Can you help us sustain this work?

Thank you,
Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
Map showing how many times higher a 15 minute in-state phone call home from a jail would be than the average cost of a call from a jail in that state. 44 states that have independent jails are shown. In Alabama and Georgia, jails are only 10% more expensive than the state prison, but in Illinois, jails are almost 53 times as expensive.

Data Source: We manually looked up prepaid rates on providers’ websites for both prisons and jails in October and November of 2018. We calculated the ratio for each state by dividing the average cost of a 15-minute in-state call from jail by the cost of a 15-minute in-state call from state prison. For more, see our methodology. (Map: Peter Wagner, 2019)

This map originally appeared in State of Phone Justice: Local jails, state prisons and private phone providers.



Stay Informed


Get the latest updates:



Share on 𝕏 Donate