The price of making phone calls from prisons and jails was set to drop under a 2024 FCC rule, but a 2025 rule revision is driving costs back up | Getty Images

For many, the recent holiday season was a time to connect with family. For some, family includes someone incarcerated in one of Wisconsin’s prisons or jails. 

Juli Bliefnick told the Wisconsin Examiner she was incarcerated in county jail and state prison from January 2012 to June 2016. She said that many people would save up precious telephone time to call their families for the holidays. 

“People that came from more disadvantaged backgrounds would not call their families as often,” Bliefnick said.

She remembers the cost of calls putting strain on her relationship with her parents while she was incarcerated. 

While incarcerated, Ventae Parrow said he had to choose whether to spend his money on additional food items and hygiene, or on talking with family on the phone. Parrow left prison in 2020 and is an organizer for the advocacy network WISDOM. He told the Examiner that how often he talked to his family depended on how much money he had.

Nationally, jail and prison phone call rates have declined over the years, according to a report covering 2008-2021 from the Prison Policy Initiative. And in 2024, the Federal Communications Commission voted for new rules to lower how much calls could cost.

The agency announced that for the overwhelming majority of people, the upper limit on the per-minute cost of calls would drop by over half. New per-minute caps ranged from 6 cents per minute for prisons to 12 cents per minute for very small jails.

However, the agency postponed aspects of the new rules in June, including the 2024 caps, until April 2027. Then the FCC voted in the fall of last year to partially roll back the 2024 change with new caps. The commission voted to increase the caps on the cost of a minute on the phone partway back to the caps that preceded the 2024 rules. The new caps range from 11 cents per minute for prisons to 19 cents per minute for extremely small jails. The FCC called them interim caps, and said it was seeking comment on how to establish permanent caps.

The FCC decision includes a ban on site commissions — payments from service providers to correctional facilities that the Prison Policy Initiative said had had the effect of inflating the final costs families paid. The ban will take effect on April 6. Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative said that sheriffs’ desire for commissions “was an important factor in driving up phone rates in the past, but it’s hard to say how that is going to change the setting of rates going forward with the new rules,” and that companies may or may not choose to jack rates up to the maximum now allowed by the FCC.

Worth Rises, a group advocating for lower rates, said the 2025 revised caps will deliver substantially less financial relief to families affected by incarceration. They will take effect April 6 barring further action.

In northeastern Wisconsin, people incarcerated in the Brown County Jail currently pay a per-minute rate of 15 cents for phone calls, Captain Heidi Michel told the Examiner. They receive two free phone calls and two free messages per week.

Michel said the jail’s average daily population for 2025 was 661 people, which meets the FCC’s definition of a medium-sized jail. The 2025 caps will require jails of this size to have rates of 12 cents per minute or less. Under the 2024 rules, medium-sized jails would have to abide by a lower rate — 7 cents per minute or less — and therefore charge incarcerated people and their families less money.

The 2025 caps also allow for people to be charged higher rates for video calls than the 2024 rules. Michel said people incarcerated in the Brown County Jail can have video visitation for 18 cents per minute. A medium-sized jail can have this rate under the 2025 caps for video calls. However, the 2024 caps would have required a rate of 12 cents per minute or less.

Michel didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Examiner on Friday about whether the county currently receives a portion of the revenue from the phone calls that incarcerated people in their jail and their families make.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said rules the commission adopted in 2024 resulted in “serious, unintended consequences.” He said that limiting how facilities could recover safety and security costs through phone call charges caused some correctional facilities to scale back or even stop offering calling services.

The Baxter County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas announced that the phone system used at the Baxter County Detention Counter would soon no longer be available due to the regulations. Two companies claimed to the FCC in April that its 2024 order was forcing correctional facilities to end or reduce access to services, and that the two companies were forced to end service to a few facilities.

Commissioner Anna Gomez, who dissented in the rollback of the 2024 rule change, said the commission took “narrow and speculative” concerns and granted a waiver of the entire 2024 decision. She also raised the idea that the commission could have considered an individual waiver of the 2024 caps for facilities that showed that having less revenue led to communication services being unavailable.

Gomez called the FCC’s order indefensible, saying it would implement “an egregious transfer of wealth from families in incredibly vulnerable situations to monopoly companies that seek to squeeze every penny out of them.”

Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative told the Examiner that according to the FCC, the caps were calculated to offset the cost of companies offering certain features to jails and prisons, such as call monitoring. In an interview, Bertram argued that call monitoring technology should not be funded by fees charged to incarcerated people and their families. 

Call costs for Wisconsin jails and prisons

The cost of a phone call varies across facilities. In the Eau Claire County Jail in western Wisconsin, incarcerated people pay 9 cents per minute on the phone and receive two free phone calls a week, Security Services Captain Chad Dachel told the Examiner. For the Polk County Jail, the rate is $0.19 per minute, and incarcerated people are allowed two free calls per week, according to Sheriff Brent Waak.

As of late 2021, the average cost of a 15-minute call from a local jail in Wisconsin was $3.00, according to a Prison Policy Initiative report.

In a statement to the Examiner, Mark Rice of WISDOM called for making prison and jail phone calls free for all. The effects of this would include reducing the financial challenge for families and improving the mental wellbeing of affected people, he wrote. The Prison Policy Initiative has argued that family contact also reduces recidivism.

In November, lawmakers and organizers announced a package of bills aimed at improving conditions in prisons and jails, including the affordability of communication, the Examiner reported.

ICSolutions, telephone service provider for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC), charges 6 cents per minute for calls at the department’s adult facilities, DOC communications director Beth Hardtke told the Examiner, as of late December. ICSolutions charges 1 cent per minute for calls made at juvenile facilities and continues to charge $2.50 for a 25-minute video visit or $5 for a 50-minute visit, according to Hardtke.  According to reporting from the Examiner in 2024, a family member of a man incarcerated at Fox Lake Correctional Institution said people receive two free calls every Sunday. Three free weekly messages are provided, according to the department’s website.

People incarcerated in jails and their families have tended to experience higher phone rates than those in prison, according to the Prison Policy Initiative report covering 2008-2021. Under the caps the FCC passed in 2024, the DOC’s 6-cent rate would still have been allowed; that’s a 15-minute rate of 90 cents In 2021, the average 15-minute rate for a jail phone call was roughly $3.

However, ICSolutions is required to pay the department a commission of 4 cents per minute for all calls at adult institutions. The FCC decision includes a ban on site commissions, which critics say inflate call costs. The ban will take effect on April 6. 

Will the commission ban affect state prisons?

Under state law, two-thirds of the phone commission from the contract must go to the Department of Administration, according to Hardtke. One-third goes to DOC and must be spent on services that “directly benefit” incarcerated people.

In September 2024, Hardtke told the Examiner that ICSolutions paid nearly $6.3 million in commission in fiscal year 2024. The Department of Corrections’ share was nearly $2.1 million. 

Hardtke said that “the commissions received allow DOC to purchase the following in support of the persons in our care,” and provided a list of items ranging from mail processing services to re-entry portfolios to art supplies. 

It’s unclear whether the FCC’s commission ban will affect prisoners’ ability to access items and services currently funded by  the commission money, or if other funding will sustain those items and services. However, $2.1 million is a tiny fraction of the Department of Corrections budget, and the commission money may not account for all of the funding supporting each item or service Hardtke listed. Hardtke said the Department of Corrections is continuing to evaluate how to best continue services to the Wisconsin prison population.

Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative said that charging people higher phone rates shouldn’t be the source of money for things like free video calls that benefit incarcerated people.

The decision leaves some room for authorities to receive money from phone calls. Within the new FCC caps, a portion of up to 2 cents per minute exists “to account for the costs correctional facilities incur in allowing access to (communication services).” 

Bertram told the Examiner that an example of this would be time spent by a correctional officer to escort people to a phone bay. The FCC said this was an interim measure while it sought comment for a permanent version. 

Hardtke’s full list of items that receive funding from the commission was: “mail processing services, driver education simulation equipment, recreation equipment, exercise equipment, library resources, TVs, cable TV, art supplies, re-entry portfolios, puzzles, yarn, activity books, CD/DVD players, movies, dayroom microwaves, incentive prizes, visiting room toys/activities, media credits, dayroom newspapers, magazine subscriptions, modern technology improvements and services, bus tickets for release, dayroom ice machines, personal laundry washing machines and repairs, barber services, religious and chapel supplies and services, legal loans, lanyards, burial/cremation for unclaimed bodies, dayroom game tables, dayroom board and card games, graduation ceremonies expenses, and more.”

Before the rollback in October, the FCC postponed its rate cap rules in June. In a November interview, Bertram said she’d already heard from families about the cost of connection going up in the wake of the loss of the 2024 caps. 

“This is going to come as a shock to a lot of families who had gotten a lot of relief from the 2024 rules,” Bertram said. 

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Teng Vang, 43, assigned to Oshkosh Correctional Institution died Thursday at a hospital. | Photo courtesy Wisconsin Department of Corrections

A ‘physical disturbance’ involving three incarcerated people occurred on Wednesday afternoon at Oshkosh Correctional Institution, Oshkosh police said in a statement. The department said it is investigating a death that occurred after the disturbance. 

Beth Hardtke, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, told the Examiner that Teng Vang, 43, died Thursday at a hospital. He was assigned to Oshkosh Correctional Institution. 

Police said a 43 year-old incarcerated person who assaulted another incarcerated person was secured by prison staff. He experienced a medical emergency and was transported to a local hospital. 

Hardtke wrote that the Oshkosh Police Department is investigating the death and the Department of Corrections is fully cooperating with the investigation.

Vang was found guilty of crimes including attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety. He was released on extended supervision in 2022, which was revoked in 2024. 

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Wrongly convicted people in Wisconsin can wait months to have their cases reviewed and receive compensation that does not meet their needs, advocates say. A bipartisan bill in the state Legislature aims to address those problems. | Photo by Caspar Benson/Getty Images

On Dec. 3, a committee of Wisconsin lawmakers heard from Gabriel Lugo about his time in prison before his conviction was overturned. 

Lugo testified through a statement read by attorney Rex Anderegg in a hearing of the Assembly Committee on State Affairs. He said he experienced constant lockdowns that severely restricted his movement and some correctional officers treating him as less than human. 

Lugo, 36, was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide in 2009 and spent the majority of his incarceration in Waupun Correctional Institution, the state’s oldest prison, which has received scrutiny for prison deaths and living conditions. After Lugo’s conviction was overturned, he was released from jail in June 2023.

According to Christopher Lau of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, the project has helped exonerate more than 30 people. Clients leave prison with medical ailments and emotional trauma, without familial support, employment, savings, and often, with nowhere to call home, his testimony stated. Many struggle to re-enter society. 

Exonerees often have to wait months to get on the agenda for the claims board’s meetings, Lau stated. If they qualify, the law doesn’t provide enough to ensure stable housing, he said, “to say nothing of the costs of social services like counseling, vocational assistance and access to health insurance.” 

The Wisconsin Claims Board can award up to $25,000 in compensation, at a rate not greater than $5,000 per year for the imprisonment, and has also awarded attorney fees. It can recommend that the state Legislature issue additional compensation. 

In February 2016, the Assembly unanimously approved a bill that aimed to increase state support for wrongly convicted people, including enabling the claims board to issue higher payouts. It did not become law. 

AB 583, a bill currently in the Legislature, also aims to provide more aid more quickly to wrongly convicted people. Under the bill, a wrongly convicted person would receive compensation at a yearly rate of $50,000, prorated daily, for the imprisonment; the total would not exceed $1 million. The claims board would adjust the rate yearly to account for the cost of living, and it would be able to award compensation in an annuity payable over time. 

The bill addresses when people who received compensation for wrongful imprisonment in the past can petition for more under the new law, potentially allowing some to receive more compensation. 

The bill lays out when wrongly convicted people could have health care coverage under plans offered by the Group Insurance Board to state employees. 

Under the bill, if a person is released from imprisonment on the basis of a claim of innocence, they could petition for a court order directing the Department of Corrections to create a transition-to-release plan. They could also petition for a financial assistance award of up to 133% of the federal poverty level for up to 14 months, or while compensation proceedings are pending, whichever is shorter. 

State legislators who introduced the bill included Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, submitted testimony in support of the bill. 

The bill bars some people from filing a petition with the claims board for compensation for wrongful imprisonment, such as a person who is convicted of a violent crime after being released. 

Records-sealing language

Also under the bill, a person released from imprisonment on the basis of a claim of innocence could petition the court for the sealing of all records related to the case. For Lugo, it took about two years to get a response from job applications because his case was still visible online, his statement said. 

A similar provision in the bill that the Assembly passed in 2016 drew pushback from the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, which argued that it would “dramatically compromise the ability of media and the public to examine what went wrong in cases in which things are known to have gone terribly wrong.”

On Dec. 22, the Wisconsin Examiner reached out to the office of Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek), one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill, about the provision and the council’s concern in 2016. 

“Thank you for bringing this information to our attention as we were not aware of this when we introduced the bill this session,” Rodriguez said in an emailed comment. “The organization has not reached out to us with any concerns at this time.”

Lawsuits

Wrongly convicted people may also attempt to obtain a monetary award through lawsuits. The bill addresses the possibility of a person receiving a settlement, judgement or award for damages in a federal or state action related to their wrongful imprisonment. 

Under one of these parts of the bill, if the person obtains a settlement before the claims board awards them compensation, the claims board would subtract the amount from the board’s compensation. 

Changing the process

Under current law, the claims board is responsible for finding whether the evidence of the person’s innocence is “clear and convincing.” 

The claims board members come from the Department of Justice, the Department of Administration, the Office of the Governor, the Wisconsin Senate and the Wisconsin Assembly. The Senate and Assembly members are Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Markesan).

Under the bill, when the claims board receives a petition for compensation for an innocent convict, it would be referred to the Division of Hearings and Appeals in the Department of Administration. The division would find whether the evidence is clear and convincing that the petitioner was innocent of the crime they were imprisoned for. 

If the evidence is clear and convincing for innocence, the division would transmit its findings to the claims board, which would decide what amount of compensation would be equitable. 

Individual bills

In a decision dated Jan. 30 of this year, the claims board awarded $25,000 to Gabriel Lugo, plus approximately $77,000 in attorney fees, and recommended that the Legislature award him an additional $750,000.

According to Rodriguez, the Legislature has only passed individual appropriation bills awarding additional compensation three times. 

Rodriguez’s testimony stated that it’s estimated that around 72 people have been exonerated in Wisconsin since 1990, and that seven received recommendations for compensation above the cap. She stated in a press release that “the Legislature should not have to play judge and jury again” when there is already a process at the claims board. 

“Without these reforms, exonerees would continue to need individual appropriation bills to receive an adequate amount of compensation,”  Rodriguez stated in a press release. “These bills have rarely been acted upon, and even more rarely are signed into law.”

The board has also recommended that the Legislature issue additional compensation for Robert and David Bintz, who were released from prison in the fall of last year.

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A screenshot from a video released by the Wisconsin State Public Defender that shows a youth in detention being restrained and beaten by staff at the Jonathan Delagrave Youth Development and Care Center in Caledonia on May 27, 2025.

The Wisconsin State Public Defenders Office released a video Tuesday of an incident involving a staff member repeatedly punching a then-15-year-old at a juvenile detention center.

The incident took place on May 27 and involved a youth at the Jonathan Delagrave Youth Development and Care Center in Caledonia.

 The video appears to show four staff members directing him to move from a spot by a wall in a hallway, possibly to a nearby room, and Elliott not moving. After a staff member swung at him, the situation devolved into a struggle. Elliott was struck repeatedly by staff before and after he was on the ground.

The incident occurred less than a month after the 48-bed facility opened on May 1, the State Public Defenders Office (SPD) said. According to the SPD, the teen had bruises, swelling on his right eye, blurred vision and headaches, scrapes and cuts and dried blood in his ear, based on records from evaluations arranged by the facility. 

“To the parents who have kids in a detention center, check on your babies,” said Kianna Reed, his mother.

The SPD wants its client immediately transferred from the facility and placed in a group home “where he can receive specialized therapy and support.”

“The people in this video should have never been entrusted with caring for children. This is a sickening act of violence,” State Public Defender Jennifer Bias said in a statement. 

The family is looking for an attorney for a civil lawsuit against Racine County, the SPD said. 

In the SPD release, Reed said that “seeing that video and knowing my son is still in that facility is terrifying,” and that “the staff need proper training and accountability.”

In a statement emailed to the Examiner, a Racine County spokesperson described the publicly released video as a partial record of a longer incident  and said that staff’s interaction with the youth took place over several minutes. It said the youth clenched his fists and made multiple threats of physical violence to other juveniles and staff.

“Maintaining the safety of youth and staff in our facilities is our highest priority,” Amberlyn Yohn, administrator of youth rehabilitation services, said in the county’s statement. “Situations like this are complex and unfold quickly. While one employee’s actions became the focus of this incident, our broader team followed established protocols and cooperated fully with the review process.”

The county commits to making sure staff have the training, oversight and support needed for managing difficult situations, Yohn said.

The “primarily involved staff member” was immediately placed on administrative leave after the incident and resigned within three days, Racine County said in a statement emailed to the Examiner. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, his name is Robert Knight, and he told the Journal Sentinel his actions were justified based on Elliott’s history at the center. He disputed that he resigned because of the investigation.

A different worker seen repeatedly striking the teen was ordered to complete eight hours of remedial training and appears to still be employed at the facility, according to the public defender’s office. Three of the four staff members involved are still employed at the center, according to the public defender’s office, which obtained records showing the staff’s employment status.

Knight said her son was displaying signs of aggression at the time of the incident, according to the Journal Sentinel. He said he intended to force the boy back rather than strike him.

The teen had been found guilty of charges of retail theft and obstructing an officer.

A new alternative

Efforts to close the Lincoln Hills facility have not yet proven successful, and its location makes it difficult for youth there to maintain contact with their community and families.

Years after a 2017 lawsuit filed over abuses, Gov. Tony Evers announced in October that the state had reached full compliance with all of the court-ordered reforms. The Department of Corrections’ website describes plans to build smaller facilities and keep youth closer to home.

In addition, the state has awarded money to counties to establish Secure Residential Care Centers for Children and Youth (SRCCCY). Milwaukee’s is expected to open in 2026; Racine’s is the only one that is currently open. The county website says it provides a “structured and rehabilitative environment for male youth.”

The facility was built as an alternative to the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons, the SPD said in its release. Some juvenile offenders can now go to the facility instead of Lincoln Hills, Eileen Fredericks, the SPD’s youth defense practice coordinator, told the Examiner.

Fredericks said that “we only have one, and then shortly after it opens, we have this really serious incident.”

The county’s website says that youth are placed in the SRCCCY under a statute that requires that the youth committed an act that would carry a sentence of six months or more if the youth were an adult. The youth also must have been found to be a danger to the public and in need of restrictive custodial treatment.

In the weeks before the facility opened in May, the Racine County Eye reported that officials said the center is a more cost-effective and compassionate alternative to state-run youth correctional facilities such as Lincoln Hills.

According to the public defender’s office, at the time of the incident, the teen was a few weeks into a five and a half-month period of participation in the SRCCCY’s RISE-UP program. He has been in detention consistently since December 2024, the SPD office said.

In the SPD’s release, Bias argued that building “shiny new prisons” won’t prevent situations like what happened to the teen. 

“We need meaningful reforms to the way our children are treated in the juvenile justice system,” Bias said. “We need judges who will prioritize alternatives to incarceration and detention workers who value care over punishment.”

Fredericks said she wants “these kids to be seen as kids” and that “there’s kind of this mindset that they’re less than kids, because they’ve done something wrong.”

Transparency concern

Bias accused the county of seeking to “sweep this incident under the rug.” The public defender’s office called for a “full-scale” investigation into conditions at the facility and the qualifications of staff members who interact with children. 

Reed told the Examiner she did not see any of the video released Tuesday by the SPD until October. 

In its statement, the county said that immediately after the May 27 incident, the mother of the youth and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections were notified. The Examiner reached out to the DOC and was told that the Jonathan Delagrave facility is county-run, and questions regarding personnel or those housed there are best directed to Racine County. 

The county said important privacy protections for juveniles must be respected, but that the county has been and remains transparent in its response to the incident. 

Law enforcement and independent human services agencies fully investigated and reviewed the incident, the county said. The details of the investigation and relevant video were provided to the Racine County District Attorney’s Office, which declined to pursue prosecution, the county said.

Warning: the video released by the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office contains graphic footage of violence against a child.

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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday that he has signed 34 bills into law, including a bill requiring judges to sentence offenders to at least 10 years in prison if convicted of a human trafficking crime and 15 years for a child trafficking crime. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday that he has signed 34 bills into law, including a bill requiring judges to sentence offenders to at least 10 years in prison if convicted of a human trafficking crime and 15 years for a child trafficking crime. 

“Crimes of this nature — most especially when it comes to our kids — should be punishable by the full extent of the law,” Evers said in a statement. “With this bill, we are helping ensure that we’re protecting some of our most vulnerable youth and holding predators accountable, most especially when they prey on our kids.”

The bill includes increases to the maximum amounts of prison time a person can receive for human and child trafficking crimes, and it allows more time for prosecution of human trafficking crimes. 

Human trafficking involves using force, fraud or coercion for labor, services or a commercial sex act. Trafficking of a child can involve a knowing attempt to recruit a child for commercial sex acts. Wisconsin trafficking law also bans benefiting from trafficking or knowingly receiving compensation from the earnings of debt bondage, a prostitute or a commercial sex act. 

Last month, the Wisconsin Examiner reported on lawmakers’ reasons for supporting the bill, such as preventing human traffickers from doing further harm. Rep. Jerry O’Connor (R-Fond Du Lac) cited cases that appeared to have taken place in other states in which people convicted of sex trafficking received between six and eight years in prison. 

The Examiner reported on criminal justice advocacy groups and attorneys’ criticisms of the mandatory minimums, including a concern from attorneys that judges would sentence people who are trafficking victims themselves to the mandatory minimum punishment without being able to consider whether the person deserved a lighter sentence because their trafficking crime was influenced by their trafficker. The bill didn’t contain an exception to the mandatory minimum for that type of situation. While Wisconsin law allows a defense in court for people who committed a crime as a “direct result” of trafficking, that didn’t allay critics’ concerns.

The anti-sex trafficking organization Shared Hope International gave Wisconsin law failing grades on multiple categories relevant to survivors of child sex trafficking: “protection from unjust criminalization,” “legal relief” and “survivor-centered supports.” The analysis was based on laws enacted as of July 1. 

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