Massachusetts becomes fifth state to make prison calls free

Good idea. Technically the cost of phone calls is so low that they might as well be free; or at least flat fee. Also, why use phone calls when you can do internet calls? They are typically not metered per minute at all. I use phone calls only when nothing else will work, i.e. very rarely. Mostly I'll use whatsapp, skype, meets, zoom, etc., depending on who I'm talking to. Most of these are completely free.

As a courtesy to relatives, who by virtue of not being locked should be presumed innocent, providing some more convenient ways to check up on their loved ones might be a nice touch. You could time box it, restrict it to certain hours, etc. But there's no need for extorting people over this.

Since the US tends to run a lot of its prisons as businesses, it's not surprising that the contractors involved are ripping off their customer (the state).

John Oliver recently did a nice episode on the abysmal state of healthcare in prisons vs. the insane profits that contractors are making. I imagine this is the same for this kind of stuff. Expensive, inefficient, stupid at many levels, and enriching some really dodgy companies and people in the process.