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Supervisors ban jail phone-and-commissary markups, aiming to ease costs for families of incarcerated people
Summary
The Board passed an ordinance prohibiting the city from entering agreements that generate revenue by marking up phone calls or commissary prices for incarcerated people, extending the change to new communications technology.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on July 14 unanimously adopted an ordinance that prohibits the city from entering agreements to provide goods or services to people in jail where the city would keep some or all of the revenue — effectively banning markups on jail phone calls and commissary items.
Supervisor Sandra Fewer, who led the ordinance’s introduction, framed the measure as a racial and economic justice step that would prevent families — in particular low‑income women of color who often shoulder the cost of staying in touch — from having to subsidize jail programming and operations. “We will not balance the budget on the backs of poor people and people of color,” Fewer said on the floor.
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