Letter: A lifeline is not a crime; free jail calls are a victory for Alachua County

Letter to the editor

Editor’s note: Since this letter mischaracterizes our articles in several places, we have added notes in those paragraphs and links to the articles so readers can weigh the evidence themselves.

On January 9, Alachua Chronicle published an article attacking our county’s free jail phone call program, framing it as a “subsidy for criminal activity.” [Editor’s note: this quote does not appear in our article.]

As a lifelong Alachua County resident, a former Community Engagement manager at GRACE Marketplace, former founding board member and team member of Released Reentry, a fellow at Community Spring, and current 2026 National Represent Justice Ambassador, I have spent my career at the front lines of our justice-impacted community. I can tell you unequivocally: those calls are not an “enabler” — they are a lifeline.

Alachua Chronicle claims that over 1,000 “crimes” have been committed via these calls. This is a dangerous obfuscation of the truth. In a jail setting, if a person calls his grandmother to ask for help with his medication, but she is on a technical “no-call” list due to a past dispute, that is logged as a “crime.” [Editor’s note: Please see this article, which details 1,464 calls made by a single inmate to his domestic battery victim (not his grandmother); law enforcement charged him with 40 counts of violating pre-trial release conditions, and he was adjudicated guilty on all 40 counts.]

To describe a human being reaching for their only support system as “criminal” is a disturbing indictment of our system’s lack of nuance.

The reality of who is behind bars

We must stop pretending our jail is a warehouse for “monsters.” The data tells a different story:

• 75%-80% of our jail population is legally innocent. They are sitting in cells awaiting trial, often held only because they lack the cash for bail.
• 70% of all arrests in Alachua County are for low-level, non-violent offenses or property crimes born out of desperation — trespassing, driving with a suspended license, or petty theft.

[Editor’s note: The author did not provide a source for this data.]

Why are we so comfortable stripping the human right of communication from our neighbors before they have even had their day in court? Portraying people in the Alachua County jail like they are running massive criminal enterprises using those phone calls is misleading and does real damage to people trying to rebuild their lives while they are at their most vulnerable. I went into the jail to work with folks…these are not monsters, they are human beings who need support and resources.

A proven strategy for success

Alachua Chronicle’s narrative ignores decades of established research. [Editor’s note: Our article simply listed six prosecutions against inmates for illegally using the jail phones and provided evidence that taxpayers are providing free phone calls to inmates at a cost of about $800,000 per year.]

According to a 2021 study by the Prison Policy Initiative:

“Over 50 years of empirical data shows — phone calls and other forms of communication between incarcerated individuals and their families not only reduces recidivism but improves the health outcomes of entire communities.”

Alachua County is not an outlier; it is joining a growing movement of communities that recognize that communication is a public safety tool.

Communities that have implemented free calls include:

• States: Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Colorado.
• Cities/Counties: New York City, San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami-Dade.

The positive outcomes of these programs:

• Reduced Recidivism: Regular contact with support systems reduces the likelihood of re-arrest by up to 30%.
• Improved Safety: Facility administrators in San Francisco and New York reported calmer environments and fewer violent infractions among the incarcerated population when communication was made free.
• Economic Equity: It ends the “poverty penalty,” allowing families to spend their limited resources on rent and food rather than predatory phone rates.

The poverty-to-prison pipeline

To understand why our jail is full, we must look at our community’s deep inequities. Alachua County has one of the highest income gaps in Florida. While the top 5% of our residents earn an average of $472,138, the bottom 20% struggle on just $10,496 a year. Nearly 47% of Alachua County households live below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold, meaning they cannot afford basic necessities like housing and healthcare.

With over 11% of our neighbors uninsured and a staggering 22,000-bed shortage for mental health treatment across Florida, our jail has become the county’s largest mental health provider by default. Last year, I worked with a developmentally disabled young man who sat in jail for months simply because there was no treatment bed available. Every call to his family was an anchor in a sea of fear. To label his calls as “crimes” is a moral failure. [Editor’s note: Alachua Chronicle has not labeled calls to family members as “crimes.” Calls to family members are only crimes when the inmate has been ordered by a judge to have no contact with a specific family member. In that case, these calls are crimes by statute, and all of our reports are from charging documents against these inmates.]

Ending the $20 million legacy of profit

The financial argument against free calls is equally hollow. For 40 years (1985–2023), Alachua County profited from (estimates $350,000-$500,000) an annual “kickback” from inmate phone calls. We effectively built a $20 million legacy by taxing the poorest families in our county during their most desperate moments.

The current contract with Securus is not a “loss” — it is a long-overdue debt we are finally paying back to these families. That financial windfall you describe is coming from the poorest residents of our community. The families of incarcerated individuals — who, by the way, have committed no crimes themselves except for loving someone who is having a struggle and trying to keep in contact — should not be our revenue stream. Are you comfortable taking their money? Does that make us a stronger community?

Connection is public safety

During my previous role at Released Reentry, my team and I used these calls to save lives. We used them to coordinate sober living placements, connect people to life-saving medication, and secure employment before a person walked out of the jail gates. Without those calls, people are released into the world with nothing but a trash bag of clothes and no plan, which is the primary driver of recidivism.

If we want a safer community, we need more connection, not less. We need to stop “criminalizing” the telephone and start addressing the wealth gap and mental health crisis that fills our jail cells in the first place.

If Alachua Chronicle wants to live up to its stated community responsibility as a “data-driven, honest local publication,” then that is where their focus should be. Instead of punching down, how about taking a deeper look at the systemic issues of housing, wages, healthcare, and poverty that create the conditions for people to end up in jail in the first place? Maybe together we can create a safer, healthier place to live. The good these calls do far outweighs the technical violations used to scare the public. It’s time we value people over commissions.

Leigh Scott, Alachua County

The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Assertions of facts in letters are similarly the responsibility of the author. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.