BLUEPRINT OF A CONSPIRACY - UNBELIEVABLE COST OF COMMUNICATION WITH LOVED ONES BEHIND THE WALLS - Government - http://maxpages.com/darkevilworld/Blueprint_of_a

By late 1994, MCI was racking up about one half million dollars a month from the inmatephone system. Not even the initial call rates of $1.05, $2.05 and $3.05 (plus .22 cents per minute for each 10 minute segment) were posted to anyone. Consequently, thousands of people accepted "collect only" calls from prisoners assuming that the rates would perhaps be a little higher, but generally the same, as all their other calls. Because MCI delayed the initial billing in some cases for 60 to 90 days, and at an average billing of $5.00 per 10 minute segment, it did not take long for these first bills to run into several hundred dollars by the time they were received. MCI knew that it would upset people - but so what? By delaying the billing and by relying on consumers' reasonable but mistaken assumptions, hundreds of thousands of windfall dollars were made in those first 90 days, and the installation cost of the entire phone system was paid for in one trick sweep. After that ALL profit would be pure gravy. (it is also important to recognize that this billing delay is actually a perpetual scam by virtue of the fact that new prisoners are being committed to the ADC every day, and new consumers will not be billed for several weeks in all those cases).

Because ADC inmates had not been allowed to make private calls for so long, the novelty of the new MCI system also resulted in compulsive calling at first. That was understandable, especially where no one knew the actual rates. And this compulsiveness was ABSOLUTELY UNDERSTOOD by MCI, too, when it first installed the system. MCI knew the dynamics of those first few months of telephone use from what it had observed in several other prison systems in other states each in their turns. Indeed, it is BECAUSE MCI already knew the psychological, emotional and other dynamics of installing a new phone system that exposes both the conspiracy AND the total b.s. of any claimed "good faith" defense to a lawsuit seeking punitive damages.

I think that a major mistake made by those persons who have filed suit in other states is that they viewed the claims, and MCI's and the prison system's culpability ONLY in terms of THAT one localized state or prison system. When MCI's track record and practices in ALL OTHER prison systems is evaluated, the blueprint of conspiracy becomes fairly clear indeed. What is happening in Arkansas is not new - it is simply IDENTICAL to what happened in all other prison systems into which MCI has made its presence.

Local Conspiracy Blueprint Factors

On October 1, 1999, it was announced that Arkansas ranks 50th in average gross family income per year. The average household rakes in all of $27,000 annually. Think about that; 50th, even counting states like New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, North Dakota...or any other state that has a SUBSTANTIALLY lower population and virtually no industry; and 50th despite the fact that with Bill Clinton being President hundreds of millions of dollars have poured into Arkansas that otherwise would not have been channeled this way.

However, in August 1994, MCI made well over $600,000 from the inmate phone system - which was three months after the system was initially up and running. At that time there were only 10,000 prisoners confined in the ADC (now 12,000), 85% of whom are considered totally destitute by the ADC itself. Most of their families were on welfare and earning substantially less than the $22,000 that was the average annual income per household then. In that one reported month, inmates racked up 43,000 call minutes on MCI's billing, which was made by less than 35% of its prisoners (3,500).

Let's say, however, that ALL 10,000 ADC prisoners averaged calling 2 telephone numbers on their call lists a month. That's 20,000 consumers to bill for $600,000 in one month -- and that's an average billing of $30 per month per consumer - or about $15.00 per inmate call. Of course, there is no way in the world that all 10,000 ADC prisoners made two calls to anywhere. Hundreds of them have no one to call, hundreds of them know no one with a phone, and hundreds of them are totally destitute. So, let's say that only 5,000 prisoners made two calls to 10,000 consumers in a month. That's now a billing of $60 per consumer. It still sounds pretty reasonable at this point, right?

However, according to the AG, the inmates of the ADC used up only 44,000 call minutes in August 1994. Since there was a 10-minute call termination scheme in place, that means that there were 4,400 10 minute "segments" for which MCI would get the hook-up fee at the rate of either $1.05, $2.05, or $3.05. To be lenient, let's go with the $3.05 even though all the calls were not out-of-state. That's $17,835.00 in hook-up charges. Add to that 44,000 call minutes at .22 cents, and it's another $9,680.00 - for a total of $27,515 for 44,000 call minutes used. Ah - but MCI made $600,000 that month! Where in the world did MCI make that other $572,485 - especially where inmates' calls averaged only 9.8 minutes each?

The answer is obvious, of course: Some 5,000 prisoners made 22 times as many calls as estimated - or some 40 calls a month to their families, which resulted in bills of several hundred dollars a month. On an annual basis that's about 1/4 of the gross income of those consumers. MCI knew this before it began, and it knew that the 10-minute call termination scheme would radically increase profits because of the numbers of calls each individual prisoner would make; or rather the number of re-dials each prisoner would make as essentially ONE call. Hundreds of those calls were also prematurely terminated because of a long list of technical "glitches" that could effect the system and because it to read an "unauthorized third party call."

On October 29, I had a chance to briefly speak to a phone repair man with whose company MCI had contracted to maintain its inmate phone system here at Cummins. He stated that 10% percent of all calls across the first three years were illegitimately terminated because of some glitch in the technology. He also said that MCI had gone to a flat $3.00 hook-up rate, and that at some ADC prisons the average 12 minute call cost in excess of $10.00!

In regard to the tens of thousands of illegitimately terminated calls (and re-dials in most cases), thousands of families of course tolerated everything those first couple of years feeling that the "new system" had to have time to work all the kinks out. However, even if the MCI system was "new" in terms of Arkansas consumers, MCI had had a decade or two of experience with its inmate phone systems by then, including experience in several other prison systems. So, there is no legitimate reason why MCI's Arkansas phone system was so plagued with techno-glitches. In my opinion, these kinds of flaws were deliberately put into the system for the very purpose of racking up windfall profits through inmate re-dials, by manipulating the consumers' basic sense of fairness.

Needless to say, these general kinds of phone statistics and dynamics would be significantly transformed over time - both by the constant influx of new prisoners to the ADC, as well as by the novelty of calls wearing off. And, most compelling, by the setting in of economic realities. Therefore, it is doubtful that MCI's profit margins continued at the rate of more than $500,000 a month even for the first full year, but through the remainder of 1994 - especially into the first major holiday season - the profits likely averaged close to $1 million through the Christmas season. I know of several families that were billed well over $1000 the first time, and they simply could not have sustained that cost for long.

It is my opinion that some penetrating "discovery" sought by someone who files a lawsuit would reveal that MCI probably has made scientific studies to determine the OPTIMUM emotional and other parameters upon which to implement the call system within a prison. I simply cannot conceive of a multi-billion dollar corporation not pouring millions into Research & Development of this kind. If this is true, it is also a provable element of conspiracy - including the alleged electronic "fail" rates with the system's technology.

In Arkansas inmates were not only allowed only 10 minutes per call, but they could not make third-party contact or else the call would be terminated (for alleged, but totally b.s., "security" reasons). It is my opinion that MCI knew full well that 10 minutes was the optimum call restriction that would assure at least one re-dial (from an emotional/psychological point of view) in most cases. Tens of thousands of other calls would be prematurely terminated because of some "glitch" in the technology that would occur by power surges, electronic "interference" signals, electrical storms and the like - all of which were UNQUESTIONABLY known in advance to MCI, and almost none of which would be credited to the customer. (Recall that the technician stated that the fail rate was 10%).

In almost all cases of improperly terminated calls the inmate would in fact re-dial, of course - meaning another hook-up fee would be charged. On an annual basis, that's a few hundred thousand dollars of extra profit. A bulletin was posted to ADC prisoners listing about 30 different reasons why calls would be terminated "accidentally" - and it was difficult to conceive what was NOT covered in that list. However, remember that MCI knew from experience in other states that consumers would eventually reach the enough-is- enough point and do something about it, but by that time millions of dollars in windfall profit would still already have been made that apparently would never have to be paid back. I am also convinced that MCI knew that almost all prisoners who did use the phones would in fact re-dial at least once, simply because 10 minutes barely allowed for the conversation to begin and for emotions to be exchanged to any degree of psychological or emotional satisfaction. I feel confident that MCI's R & D records would disclose this.

At first blush a 10 minute call limit for each call under the assertion that all inmates needed to have phone access sounds reasonable to the average person. That is, no handful of prisoners who could afford to stay on the phones all day should prevent others from making calls as well. And, since there are only 1,440 minutes in a day with potentially 10,000 prisoners to use them, some kind of limit had to be put to the calls, especially where the phone system was operational for only 12 hours a day - or 720 minutes! By golly, just 12 rich prisoners could use up all those minutes by themselves!

Ah, but a 10 minute call termination was not reasonable (and a similar call limit policy is not reasonable in most all other prison systems), for many reasons. First, the scam is exposed by the simple fact that even though 10 minute call limits were established - any prisoner could hang up and re-dial his number as often as he wished. And there has never been any restriction on HOW MANY 10 minute calls any prisoner could make IN SUCCESSION. But, if a prisoner could hang up every 10 minutes only to dial the number again as often as he wanted - WHY then was he limited to a 10 minute call to start with? MCI hook-up fee racketeering, that's why. And THAT'S the ONLY reason for having a 10 minute call termination. Just pay the hook-up fee and shut up.

Second, at the Cummins Unit MCI installed 61 telephones, and an estimated 600 phones throughout the entire ADC. On the Cummins Unit alone that amounted to 720 call minutes per day per 61 phones, or 43,920 call minutes available to 1,700 Cummins prisoners PER DAY (which is more call minutes at Cummins Unit alone than the 44,000 minutes that the ENTIRE ADC actually used up in the entire month of August 1994!). Or, for 61 phones at Cummins, that's 1,317,600 available call minutes per month.

Assuming that EVERY prisoner at Cummins made one 10-minute call PER DAY (which is a totally ridiculous assumption) - that's only 17,000 call minutes used by 1,700 prisoners out of the rounded 44,000 minutes available on 61 phones A DAY.

However, lets say the system could technologically only process half the phones simultaneously - or 30 phones. That's still 21,600 call minutes per day available while all 1,700 prisoners making a 10 minute call each day would be able to use only 17,000 minutes. Of course, MCI's system can in fact handle more than 30 phones simultaneously, and maybe 1/3 of the prisoners might realistically make a call ONCE A WEEK, to 2 or 3 different parties. (That would be 6,800 calls a month; or 68,000 call minutes used out of an available 1,300,000 call minutes!) How on earth can that justify a 10 minute call limit?

Project that out to the 600 phones and 10,000 prisoners of the ADC, that's 432,000 call minutes available to the ADC per day, while if ALL inmates made one 10- inute call a day, that's only 100,000 minutes USED, or a surplus of 332,000 minutes a day. For a month, that's 12,960,000 minutes available system wide, while only 3,000,000 could be used! That's a surplus of 9,960,000 minutes A MONTH system wide. Again, how in the world could the excuse for limiting calls to 10 minutes be legitimate? Surely any jury would see through this? And, remember that MCI already knew by experience with other prison systems that this call limit was utter hog wash.

Talking in terms of money from an MCI point of view, on an ADC-wide daily basis, there would be 43,200 10-minute segments available to the inmates - which if used translated to about $88,150.00 in hook-up rates alone PER DAY (averaging $2.05 hook-up for all calls, since even nearby Grady, Arkansas is already a long-distance call;PLUS .22 cents for 432,000 minutes per day; or $95,040.00 per day. Projected to a year, that's $34,689,600.00 - which would be 1/4 of the combined gross income of 10,000 families earning $15,000.00 a year.

Needless to say - it is insane for anyone to think that ANYTHING close to this number of calls were made by anything close to 10,000 inmates. An inmate would be lucky to make four calls, each, to two persons a month!

In contrast to calling one's family at say $2.05 hook-up plus .22 cents ($4.25 per 10-minute segment, or $21.25 per hour), ADC inmates' phone calls to attorneys or other "privileged" persons are NOT limited to 10 minute termination. An attorney can bedtalked to indefinitely at the rate of one hook-up charge, plus .22 cents per minute. On an hourly basis, therefor, calling home in 1994 cost $23.45 per hour (5 hook-ups plus 60 minutes at .22 cents), while calling the attorney for 1 hour cost only $15.25 ($2.05 plus $13.20 for 60 minutes). Why is it 1/3 cheaper to talk to a mouthpiece than to one's loved ones? (For out-of-state calls and when taxes are added, it's almost TWICE as expensive per hour to call home than to call an attorney).

No, the 10-minute call limitation was an unequivocal conspiracy between MCI and the ADC, who together manipulated the Commission's rates in a way that breaches criminal laws, in my opinion, and that continues to this day. Needless to say, the call rates have been raised SEVERAL times since 1994, and without notice to consumers. They are SUBSTANTIALLY more now - meaning millions of dollars more are racked up by holding us over an emotional barrel, and this racketeering by both MCI and the ADC continues ONLY because lawsuits are not being filed to expose the conspiracy AND which seek PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

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