What a Call Home Costs

Phone calls from prison are billed by the minute. The rate varies by state, by facility, and by whether the call is local, in-state, or out-of-state. In Washington State, a fifteen-minute call from a state correctional facility to a number outside the prison system costs approximately $1.40 at current rates. That number is lower than it was five years ago. It is also lower than it was last year. And it is the result of policy work, advocacy work, and federal regulatory action that took, in total, roughly thirty years.

How we got here

In 2024, the FCC capped interstate prison call rates at approximately $0.06 per minute for prepaid calls. Before that cap, the average rate hovered closer to $0.21 per minute, and in some facilities it had been as high as $1.13. The FCC’s authority to regulate these rates had been contested for decades. The cap, when it finally arrived, was the result of a coalition that included formerly incarcerated people, family members, civil rights organizations, and a handful of legislators who had decided that a phone call to your child should not be a luxury good.

The cap, when it finally arrived, was the result of a coalition that had decided a phone call to your child should not be a luxury good.

What it still costs

The cap is real. The cap is a victory. The cap is also not the whole story.

Most facilities still levy connection fees, deposit fees, and account maintenance fees on top of the per-minute rate. A family putting $50 on their incarcerated person’s calling account often sees $5–$8 of that absorbed by service fees before any minute of conversation has happened. Over the course of a year, for a family taking three fifteen-minute calls per week, the math runs to approximately $340 in direct call charges plus an additional $70–$120 in fees.

That is the cost of saying I love you, in installments, for a year.