It’s nice to see government working for the people once in a while. And Eliot Spitzer, brand new Governor of New York, is just the guy to do it.

Since 2003, NY state has had a sick, demented tax on people who’s friends and families happen to be in prison. Oh, and the government was sharing the spoils with for-profit phone company Verizon. This is how this disgusting shake-down worked:

In court papers, lawyers for Verizon/MCI said the state Public Service Commission directed them in 2003 to charge a tariff that includes the “jurisdictional” rate plus the “DOCS commission.” That included a flat rate of $3 per call and 16 cents a minute thereafter.

That meant collect calls have been charged at a rate of 630 percent more than consumer rates, of which 57.5 percent is “kicked back” to [the Dept. of Correctional Services] for operating expenses such as health care that should come out of general tax dollars, [Center for Constitutional Rights] officials said.

[via]

Yesterday, Spitzer announced that the rates would be cut. permanent link to this post