Amicus curiae brief of The Sentencing Project, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc., National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The Women's Prison Association, Legal Action Center, The Fortune Society, Bronx Defenders, Center for Community Alternatives, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, Justice Policy Institute, Souther Tier Advocacy & Mitigation Project, Inc., Parolee Human Rights Project of the New York City AIDS Housing Network, Advocare, Inc., ...
Argument: ... The Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, Voice of the Ex-Offender, The Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, and The Real Cost of Prisons Project, in support of plaintiff appellants. "Brandeis brief" deploring exorbitant costs of collect calls from New York state prisons as bad public policy. New York State makes over $20 million a year profit from inmate-placed collect calls to family and counsel, in effect levying an "inmate telephone tax" on poor families, public defenders and criminal defense lawyers.