But inmates are only allowed to talk for 15 minutes and are subject to the full connection fee if they want to call back to finish a conversation.

"It's not a trick, we're not trying to generate funds on purpose. It's just part of the system," he said.

But the inmate rate is still far higher than a regular pay phone call, Barnard said. With little contact with family besides the telephone, the mandate to use collect calls is an unfair tax, he said.

"People on the outside at least have a choice to make a collect phone call or go to a pay phone," he said. "The inmates don't have a choice. It's a captive group of consumers with absolutely no choice."

Cook added that the jail does receive complaints from family members about the charges showing up on their phone bills. Until recently, Cook said phone call recipients were not informed of the charges before accepting the call. Now, the charges are disclosed up-front, he said.

Cook is also quick to point out that prisoners are given an unlimited number of free phone calls when they are first brought into the jail. Once they are registered as an inmate, however, they are required to use the collect call system.

"I don't feel we're hurting the community or the prisoner by requiring a charge for them to use the phone," Cook said. "This is something that all the jails do. A lot of times it is unfortunate, especially if people are accepting tons and tons of calls from the person here at the jail."

Family members and friends of jail inmates do have a choice, Cook added, not to accept the phone calls or even to put a block on their phone for all jail calls.

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com