Class action filed against Bell over prison phone contract

Attorneys representing an unnamed former inmate at several Ontario prisons have filed a class action lawsuit against BCE Inc., for what they say are the “unconscionable” telephone rates for prisoners in Bell’s contract with the Ontario prison system. The lawsuit, filed with the court on Feb. 5 by lawyers from Sotos Class Actions, alleges that Bell “engaged in unfair practices” contrary to section 15 of the Ontario Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from making “unconscionable representations” to consumers. The suit holds that once it entered into a contract to operate the Ontario prisons’ Offender Telephone Management System, Bell “gave Ontario Prisoners one option, and one option only: place collect calls to landlines at exorbitant and improvident prices extracted from anyone who had to accept the calls.” “Bell imposed unconscionable and invalid agreements on the Class Members and benefited itself to their disadvantage. Bell unjustly enriched itself at the expense of the Plaintiff and the Class Members,” the suit says. In asking the court to certify the action as a class proceeding, the suit also asks for statutory and general damages of $152 million, for “monies had and received under invalid and unconscionable agreements,” as well as punitive damages of $10 million. The suit says that Bell’s contract with the Ontario prison system stipulates that Bell would provide rates “no higher than the published residential rates established by the Incumbent local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) applicable to a comparable call connected and billed by the Supplier placed outside the Facility within the local community of the applicable Facility.” In reality, the suit goes on, Bell charges prisoners and their families “astronomical prices that no one else pays in Ontario outside the Class—including Bell’s residential customers.” That is, over $30 for a 20-minute long-distance collect call. “No other comparable telephony service in Ontario costs anywhere near these amounts.” The high prices have a devastating effect on prisoners’ lives, the suit argues. “Communication between Prisoners, family members, and members of the community is fundamental to Prisoners’ rehabilitation and successful reintegration into society. The telephone is the primary method by which Prisoners maintain contact with others,” the suit says, making particular reference to the death of Cleve Gordon Geddes at the Ottawa Detention Centre. The verdict of the Coroner’s Jury in Geddes’ death “emphasized the vital importance of telephone communications for Prisoners.” Bell, for its part, says that rates charged to prisoners and their families are the same as long-distance rates charged to everyone in Ontario, and said that it will big again when the contract is up in June. "The current Ontario government wants to expand calling options and offer different rates in a new contract when this one expires in June. Bell has responded to the government’s request for proposals. Again, if we win we would be implementing the criteria they set out, as we have with the 2013 contract," a Bell spokesperson said in an emailed statement Wednesday evening. The company said the assertion in the suit that Bell "doesn’t care about mental health – it’s ludicrous," and pointed to its Let's Talk initiative.

Class action filed against Bell over prison phone contract

Brief | February 12, 2020

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Class action filed against Bell over prison phone contract

Brief | February 12, 2020

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