As a result, it reduced average rates nearly in half to $1.65 for 15-minute long distance calls, while eliminating most ancillary fees and capping the rest. As prison policy advocate Aleks Kajstura told NBC News, that means "calls that used to cost a dollar a minute now could be as low as 11 cents." It also means that former inmates can start their lives after prison with a little more cash in their jeans. To quote Nick Nolte's character in 1989's Three Fugitives "25 cents an hour, six hours a day, five years. That's $1,740. Not much for all that laundry, huh Lucas?"

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