Massachusetts becomes fifth state to make prison calls free

Six years later, when I was still locked up, my mother was dying of cancer and I could only afford to call her for five minutes a day.

Illinois at least dropped the prices of its prison calls to 1¢/min.

Amazing that this bill includes the county jails. Often jail and prison regulations are totally separate and jails usually get the short end of the stick.

And remember, it is never the prisoners that pay for the calls. It is always the friends and family having to put money onto the phone or commissary accounts. Often a male prisoner has left behind a woman and children and they have lost their primary income, but now they are being burdened with paying for phone calls, hygiene products, clothing and food for their loved one too.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_r...

But I honestly don't see the problem in principle.

If a court issues you a fine and you simply ignore it, that's not a situation society can just ignore. If you are truly unable to pay, that's more complicated, but should not just simply magically resolve you of responsibility.

There has to be other measures to ensure that money is paid or an equivalent cost is beared. Garnishing wages being an obvious first step.

(This is especially true if fines were to scale with income/wealth)