Inmates and their loved ones will not have free prison phone calls anytime soon, but lawmakers are working on legislation to keep rates low.
Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, has sponsored HB 801 , which passed 56-41 with some Republican support. It passed on the final day a bill could be heard in its respective chamber.
The bill originally proposed for the Virginia Department of Corrections to provide free telephone and video calls to inmates, and make a minimum of one telephone available for every 10 inmates per housing unit.
Instead, the bill was amended with language that the Department of Corrections be required to use the lowest rate. Lawmakers also eliminated language that would have added more telephones per inmate.
Prison telephone and video systems are outsourced through third-party companies. A phone call costs an inmate just over 4 cents per minute and a video call costs 20 cents per minute, according to the bill’s fiscal impact statement . The Department of Corrections reported the cost has remained the same since 2015.