03/05/2026
“The state Senate voted on Thursday to make it free for incarcerated people to call their loved ones from prison or jail.”
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“The bill would allow people incarcerated in state correctional facilities to use the phones for free. Currently, making a phone call from jail or prison is a costly service, potentially made even less affordable during COVID-19.
“If the bill passes the House, Connecticut could become the first state in the country to make all prison phone calls free.”
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“‘After years of work, we have finally passed the bill to provide free communications for the families of incarcerated people,’ Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, a proponent who has been pushing to make the calls free for the past three legislative sessions, said. ‘There’s still an uphill battle to ensure that we hear the bill in the House, but the bipartisan vote in the Senate is a reminder that the CT legislature cares about rehabilitating people and providing a framework to be successful upon reentry.’”
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“The money generated from the phone calls goes to a private company, Securus Technologies, which collects and passes funds through to the state, paying for state supervision overseen by the Judicial Branch, the Criminal Justice Information System and for Department of Correction programming.”
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“‘Many of those families are very poor. Many of them are not able to travel to visit their incarcerated relatives because they are so far away on other ends of the state,’ Looney said. ‘So the only lifeline, the only way to possibly keep in contact is to have as frequent phone conversations and phone contacts as they possibly can.’”
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“The bill also protects in-person visitation, prohibiting the DOC from supplanting contact visits with phone calls since those services would now be free.”
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