Inmates in New York prisons will be able to make free phone calls

ALBANY, NY- Inmates across New York prison systems will soon be able to make free phone calls.

Starting August 1, the NYDOCCS will lift a charge on calls over 15-minutes. Up until this development, inmates received three 15-minute phone calls per-work, free of charge.

Anything over that threshold resulted in a charge of 2.4-cents per-minute.

Since 2019, jail systems in New York City have provided free phone calls to those incarcerated.

Officials with the NYSDOCCS claim the cost of this new policy is woven into its operating budget.

Connecticut was the first U.S. State to apply such a policy and other states have since caught on with similar approaches.

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