Wichita ? The Kansas Department of Corrections is soliciting contract proposals that it hopes will reduce the cost of inmate phone calls on its telephone system.

The high cost of calls from prisons and jails in Kansas has drawn complaints from inmates and their families and questions from the Kansas Legislature.

Calls can cost as much as 69 cents a minute with a $3.95 service charge added, depending on where inmates are housed and where they are calling.

“I just called once a week because the calls are so expensive,” said former inmate Jeff Sypher. “I really shouldn’t even have called that much. A lot of guys in there, they don’t have that luxury.”

T-Netix Inc., which has held the contract since December 2002, services all of the Department of Corrections facilities except the work release centers in Wichita and Hutchinson. Its contract with the agency expires Dec. 16. The department will request contract proposals this summer.

In addition to more than 90 jails and prisons in Kansas, T-Netix serves about 3,000 correction centers across the nation, the company said.

The Corrections Department told the Kansas Legislature that the inmate calls were expensive because security features on the telephone system add to the cost. Those features include the capability to record and monitor calls, to prevent call forwarding and to restrict certain numbers.

The agency also receives a 48 percent commission of the revenue generated by inmate calls. Under the current contract the Corrections Department is guaranteed a minimum of $2.75 million annually.

Simmons said that money helps fund sexual offender, substance abuse treatment and vocational education programs – some of which are state mandated.

Joe Becker, a former minister with the Church of Christ who often talks to inmates as part of his ministry, said he spends about $200 a year taking calls from inmates. He said calls are cut off and blocked too often, leading to additional service charges.

“These people are standing between inmates and their loved ones with their hands out, saying ‘Pay me first!”‘ Becker said. “If it’s not illegal, it ought to be. But it’s certainly immoral.”