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An inmate serving time for robbery is convinced the local cable company and state corrections department are robbing him on his monthly cable bill.
Joel Santos Maldonado, 28, of Lancaster is serving a 12- to 26-year sentence at the State Correctional Institute at Fayette in Labelle, Luzerne Township, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Maldonado already feels his monthly bill from Texas-based Correctional Cable TV (CCTV), which provides cable service to prisoners, is high enough, but when he discovered the state included a 75-cent monthly “administrative fee” he filed a lawsuit.
Maldonado accuses the state of interfering with his business relationship with CCTV by including the fee. Without the fee, his bill would be $15.75 a month for the 47-channel cable package.
His suit asks for a reversal of the 75-cent fee as well as unspecified damages.
Prison officials counter the administrative fee has been part of the cable package for at least four years.
Trinity Broadcasting Network offers inmates special programming on CCTV that it claims "rebuilds inmate lives and reduces recidivism"
“The inmate signs an agreement that states we charge this fee when he elects to purchase cable,” corrections department spokeswoman Susan Bensinger told the newspaper. “If he doesn’t want to pay the fee, he can simply elect to not purchase cable TV service.”
Those outside of prison pay more for their cable service. Cable pricing from Atlantic Broadband is a comparably worse deal. For $19.99 a month, residents of Labelle get 20 channels, mostly local broadcast stations, public access, and a handful of basic cable channels. To get a package comparable to what Madonado receives, a customer would have to upgrade to the 67-channel standard service package — for $59.99 a month.
The lawsuit awaits further action in Fayette County court.
Correctional Cable TV began providing cable service to Correctional Facilities in the early 1990’s and currently serves more than 130 facilities across 20 states, particularly in Colorado, Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The company furnishes, installs, and maintains the equipment to provide the programming at no up front cost to the prison authority. Programming costs are recouped by charges paid by inmates to receive the service.
My question isn’t the fee, why are they getting cable in the first place? Shouldn’t you be punished for going to prison? If prison life was miserable, there might be fewer repeat offenders, hint hint.
That was my immediate question as well. It seems to me that people who break the law are given way too many rights these days. I know people deserve the basic human rights no matter what, but I believe that if you’re in prison, you should get a bed, a toilet, a sink, and an hour to exercise outside every day and twenty minutes to shower. Other than that, you stay in your cell and read a book or something. Why are inmates being given the internet and TV to entertain themselves when they should be reflecting on their crimes?… Read more »
Who’s paying for this lawsuit. I’f it’s the taxpayer, I say just pull the plug on the cable and remove his cable bill altogether….problem solved.