Senate Bill No. 234 of the 2023 Legislative Session (S.B. 234) required the Department of Corrections to establish and administer a pilot program to provide telephone calls between offenders in the custody of the Department who have been assigned to Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center and the families of such offenders. S.B. 234 required the program to: (1) be designed to facilitate and encourage a continuing relationship between the offenders and the families of such offenders; and (2) provide each offender with a 15-minute telephone call each day to a member of the family of the offender free of charge. S.B. 234 expired by limitation on January 1, 2025. (Chapter 443, Statutes of Nevada 2023, at page 2727) Section 1 of this bill codifies and makes permanent the pilot program established pursuant to S.B. 234. Existing law requires the Director of the Department, with the approval of the Board of State Prison Commissioners, to establish by regulation criteria for a reasonable deduction from money credited to the account of an offender to repay the cost incurred by the Department on behalf of the offender for telephone calls charged to the Department. (NRS 209.246) Existing federal regulations require a provider of Incarcerated People's Communication Services (IPCS) to make a reasonable effort to refund money deposited into an IPCS Account under certain circumstances. (47 C.F.R. § 64.6130) Section 2 of this bill: (1) prohibits the Department from charging an offender more than the actual cost to the Department for any audio or video calls made by or to an offender; and (2) requires that if the Department enters into a contract with a provider of communications services to provide communications services to offenders, the contract must include, without limitation, a provision requiring the provider to comply with the provisions of federal regulations relating to the return of money deposited into an IPCS Account, as those regulations existed on January 1, 2025.

Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 209.246
BDR: 209.246