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Bureau of Prisons to offer inmates 210 additional purchasable phone minutes, agency official says
Summary
An agency official announced the Federal Bureau of Prisons will add 210 purchasable phone minutes agencywide and is exploring tablets to expand access; the official cited research saying connected inmates are 26% less likely to recidivate but did not specify the study.
An agency official said the Federal Bureau of Prisons will add 210 additional minutes available for purchase to inmates agencywide, a change the official framed as a step to help incarcerated people stay connected with family and reduce repeat offending.
"For decades, the Bureau of Prisons has only offered 300 minutes per month of phone use to its inmates," the agency official said, noting that equates to "only ten minutes per day." The official added, "we are adding 210 minutes for purchase to inmates throughout our entire agency."
The official cited research while explaining the rationale: "Data has shown that inmates inside have a 26% less likelihood to recidivate if they stay connected to their family." The transcript did not identify the research source; the official presented the figure as supporting the decision but did not provide a citation during the remarks.
The agency official said the additional minutes are intended to let people in custody better maintain family roles: "Ten minutes per day for a father to be a father to his children... For a mother to be a mother to her children, or for spouses to be able to stay connected with each other." The official said the change is "only a start," adding that infrastructure and other limitations currently prevent larger immediate increases.
As part of plans to expand access, the official said the Bureau is "looking at having tablets and adding those to our system, which will help us to be able to offer more minutes." No timetable for a rollout of tablets or for agencywide increases beyond the purchasable minutes was provided in the remarks.
The official framed the policy as tied to public-safety goals: "We want less people coming back to prison. Society deserves that." The remarks closed with praise for staff work on implementation: "I just want to say thank you to all of our staff agencywide that are helping make this happen, and we look forward to doing more things to make a difference in changing this recidivism rate that we're dealing with today."
