House Corrections and Institutions reviews H.294 changes to inmate phone, tablet and commissary services

The House Corrections and Institutions Committee on Thursday, April 17, heard Department of Corrections officials review the provisions of H.294 that address inmate telecommunications, commissary operations and related compensation and account issues.

The bill discussion matters because it touches communications access for incarcerated people, family costs, vendor contracts and possible state budget implications if the state chooses to subsidize calls or messaging.

Kristin Calvert, deputy commissioner of corrections, told the committee that incarcerated people currently access three primary communication types: phone calls, tablet messages and tablet video calls. Calvert said those connections are routed through an approved-call list reviewed by caseworkers for victim-sensitivity and similar restrictions. She said typical current prices shown to the committee were about 6¢ per minute for phone calls, 25¢ per tablet message and “just over 2¢” for video calls per day, and that new Federal Communications Commission rules have required changes to how commissions and rates are handled.

Calvert also described an ongoing vendor transition. The current vendor providing phone and tablet services is ViaPath; the new vendor contract will be with IC Solutions and will run to January 2033, she said. She described a roughly two-month overlap so services do not lapse during the changeover and said tablet video-call per-minute rates will change when the new contractor takes effect. Calvert said the DOC no longer receives commission revenue from phone calls under the FCC rules, and that only limited commissions now remain for tablet messaging and video calls.

Committee members pressed DOC staff for operational and financial detail. The department reported December 2024 usage of about 80,000 phone calls, 3,100 video calls and roughly 54,000 total minutes (the slides captured those figures as December monthly totals). Calvert said a rough state cost estimate to pay for all phone calls — a scenario that would eliminate charges to incarcerated people — was “$1,300,000 plus,” a figure the department called a likely floor because other states that removed fees experienced sharp volume increases.

Tim Burgess, executive director of Vermont CURE, told the committee that in practice incarcerated people sometimes must spend their phone credits to call attorneys, while attorney-initiated calls use a designated incoming line; he said that dynamic can create barriers depending on who places the call. "So if someone wants to contact their attorney, they have to use phone credits to do that. But if their attorney wants to call them and they call into the facility, there's a phone designated for that," Burgess said.

DOC staff explained indigent funds are available for some attorney calls but said they would verify which call types indigent funds may cover. Committee members asked DOC to confirm whether attorney calls are monitored, to provide details on how monitoring is used, and to confirm which call types are free. Calvert offered to follow up on monitoring policies and other granular contract provisions.

Committee members also discussed commissary operations. DOC said Keefe (listed in materials as the commissary contractor) will operate under a separate commissary contract aligned with the IC Solutions term and that commissary products include hygiene items not supplied in standard issue, batteries, coffee, snacks and limited clothing items. DOC staff said commissary proceeds generate commissions that feed a recreation (rec) fund used for staff and recreational supplies at facilities; committee members asked for a clearer accounting of how commissary commissions flow into the rec fund and how decisions about spending are made.

Members read a constituent letter raising specific concerns about recent price increases and alleged failures to provide a 30-day notice required by DOC policy. DOC staff said price changes occur when vendors submit new prices and that they would investigate the cited 30-day notice issue and follow up with the committee.

Committee members asked DOC to provide several follow-ups before further action on H.294: consolidated resident account and phone-account balance trends (not point-in-time raw exports), verification of what indigent funds cover, written confirmation of whether attorney communications are routinely monitored and under what circumstances, documentation of commission rates and a detailed listing of commissary pricing and vendor markups. DOC agreed to supply the requested reports and to return to committee with additional information. Calvert said new contract features include two free phone calls per individual per week under the incoming contractor; the contract language did not specify a duration for those calls, and DOC said it would check and report back.

The committee did not take formal votes on H.294 at the hearing. Members scheduled additional testimony and asked DOC to return with the requested financial and operational details, including the commissary pricing history and the merged direct-trust account data expected when the new vendor systems go live in June.

Next steps: DOC will supply the financial and operational follow-ups and return to the committee; the committee indicated it will also take up the wage portion of H.294 at a future meeting.