A captive market: The high price of prison phone calls
![criminal justice system, phones, prison calls, a captive market: the high price of prison phone calls](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/06/20/jovaanlumpkin-am-62b6e028e7222ac78c254f8823bd17e6bfa64a31.jpg?s=1100&c=100&f=jpeg)
While Jovaan Lumpkin was in prison, his mother spent thousands of dollars in phone calls to stay connected. Hismom, Diane Lewis, continues to advocate to make these calls free for prisoners and their families. Adrian Ma/NPR hide caption
toggle caption Adrian Ma/NPR
When Diane Lewis' son, Jovaan, was sentenced to prison, she told him to call her every day. What he didn't know at the time is that those collect calls often meant Diane was unable to pay her other bills. Today on the show, how prison phone calls got so expensive, and the movement to make them free.
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.