Prisons yank phone access for thousands of incarcerated people, watchdog says

For people in prison, phone calls can reduce feelings of isolation, improve behavior behind bars, and ensure a smoother return to society after they’re freed, research has shown.

Yet state Department of Corrections officials have yanked the phone privileges of thousands of incarcerated people as punishment for disciplinary infractions, sometimes for a year or even far longer, a state watchdog has found.

A 21-year-old man at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton lost phone privileges for almost nine years, while a 32-year-old man at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton got denied phone access for nearly five years — sanctions that extended beyond his maximum prison release date.

Such practices deserve scrutiny and should be changed, state Corrections Ombudsperson Terry Schuster wrote in a report released Thursday.

“While the Department has broad discretion to utilize sanctions and incentives, the current practices may be experienced as another form of isolation, potentially undermining the goal of ensuring that people come out of prison with the community supports needed to succeed upon release,” Schuster wrote.

Officials revoked phone privileges of 2,475 people for 4,925 disciplinary infractions last year, impacting about 19% of the incarcerated population, researchers in Schuster’s office found. In 89 cases, people were barred from phone access for a full year, while another 475 people lost access for six months to a year, they found.

Most of such sanctions were unrelated to people’s behavior while on the telephone, and were imposed instead to punish assaultive behavior, refusal to follow orders, threats or weapons, drug possession, and other offenses, researchers found.

For family members who don’t hear from incarcerated loved ones without explanation, such sanctions feed anxiety, panic, and mistrust of the system, Schuster noted.

Schuster urged department officials to revise disciplinary policies to limit when and for how long phone privileges can be taken away and to notify incarcerated people’s loved ones when access is revoked.

He recommended that lawmakers act to limit punishments that remove phone access for people in prison.

Spokespeople from the Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment.

Phone calls were among the most popular ways for incarcerated people to keep in touch with loved ones, according to surveys Schuster’s office did with people incarcerated in four state prisons.

People imprisoned in the state system made about 10.4 million phone calls last year — averaging about two calls per person per day, with calls lasting an average of 10 minutes, according to the report. Calls cost 4 cents a minute.

Incarcerated people also made 11,000 video visits, wrote 3.3 million electronic messages via telecommunications provider JPay, created 300,000 short video grams, and sent hundreds of thousands of letters and photos, according to the report. Video visits cost $9.95 for 30 minutes, and email, 35 cents.

Researchers also examined in-person visits and found visits remained down 36% at the end of last year from prepandemic levels.

Correctional officials also revoke visiting privileges for misbehavior, with more than 1,300 people (10% of state prisons’ population) losing contact visits for at least a year as a zero-tolerance sanction for disciplinary violations in 2023, Schuster’s office found.