Prison surcharge to fund ed programs

The state of Utah imposes a surcharge on all collect calls made by prisoners to their families and others they wish to call. That surcharge is then used to subsidize the rest of the state's phone services.

HB234 seeks to change where that money goes.

Rep. Brent Goodfellow, D-West Valley, believes the money collected from prison phone calls should be used to cover the costs of educational programs for prisoners.

"The recidivism rate is 17 percent better for offenders who have graduated," Goodfellow said.

He said the bill creates a fund, comprised of the surcharges collected, which the Board of Regents of Higher Education can appropriate toward the costs of education and training for prisoners. The state currently absorbs the costs for such programs.

Goodfellow said parents who pay for higher education expenses, and whose children are not prisoners, often complain that the state covers prisoner education. He said the fund will remain where it should since the prisoners are generating the fund with their calls to families, who then pay the surcharge.

After being held over the weekend for further clarification, the House Public Utilities and Technology Committee passed the bill Monday.