By Rachel M. Cohen
CONNECTICUT MAY SOON be the first state in the nation to make calls from prison free for incarcerated people and their families, following on the heels of New York City, which became the first city to do so last year. Decades of research have shown that keeping in touch with loved ones while incarcerated greatly improves an individual's chance for successful re-entry when they are released and that the financial toll of maintaining contact disproportionately falls on low-income family members.
A hearing for the bill - H.B. No. 6714 - was held in Hartford in late March, and advocates are cautiously optimistic it will be voted out of the state's House Judiciary Committee next week. The bill was introduced by Rep. Josh Elliott, a progressive elected in 2016 to represent Connecticut's 88th District, and drafted by Worth Rises, a national nonprofit focused on ending the influence of commercial interests in the criminal justice system.