BlogWood: MT Archives

FDOC scams inmates on phone charges

The Tribune and the Times are both dutifully running stories from the Hillsborough County Sheriff about an inmate phone scam to make free calls.

Inmates at the Falkenberg and Orient Road jails are abusing their phone privileges in a scam that has unsuspecting Hillsborough County residents paying for inmates' unauthorized telephone calls, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Unfortunately, neither paper is reporting on the ongoing inmate phone scam being waged by the Florida Department of Corrections.

During just the past two years, the FDOC, taking advantage of prisoners’ families’ desire to remain a family and in contact with those incarcerated, has through exclusive collect-call long-distance telephone contracts with telecommunication giants MCI WorldCom and Sprint Communications bilked more than $32 million from prisoners’ families. Perversely, the FDOC sees no problem with this; little or no concern is displayed for the tremendous financial burden this is placing on families or the consequences this anti-family practice of the FDOC is having.