the wild. i'm antonio mora, "america tonight" is next, i'll see you again in an hour. >> on "america tonight." second chances? >> from the sounds of it, you would assume it was a crime against kids. >> "america tonight's" adam may on the penalties low level offenders must pay even after they've been punished. also ahead, hangup. the most valuable number an inmate can have and how some prisons are profiting from it. >> how much money do you think you spent in total? >> i easily could have spent up to $500 a month.

thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. we begin our report with a disconnect between the notion of rehabilitation in prison and the real burdens the institutions put on inmates. the key of a return to normal life or the cost of keeping families together may be more than the prisoners or the prison system can afford. lori jane gliha reports on the high price of staying connected. >> every year on their birthdays, bethany frazier's boys looked forward to a special call. one running to pick it up. >> kids, daddy, we're running down the stairs and grabbing the phone. >> the voice on the other end of the phone came from their father, quincy frazier.

where he is serving time for driving drunk. >> i realized how important it was for kind of everybody to stay connected. again for me, if the kids are my core concern, they needed to know that hey i do have a dad, he's not here, he cares about me, what did he has nothing to do with me. >> bethany did everything she could to keep her family connected. her youngest was just 2 when the accident happened. and she didn't want her son to forget his dad while he paid the price for his crime. what she didn't realize is the price she would pay to keep them in touch. >> it was a very expensive phone call. >> how much money do you think you spent in total? >> i easily could have spent up to $500 a month. the hardest thing was i knew he was calling and i couldn't afford to get it. at the time i didn't have the extra money to put on the phone. >> people say, you want to be able to communicate with your

family don't commit the crime. >> i agree and i wish it didn't happen but my kids didn't do it. so i believe that they should be able to keep that contact. >> bethany isn't alone. there are 2.2 million people in our nation's prisons and jails, all potential customers for $1.2 billion prison phone industry, an industry many accuse of price gouging and unfairly taking advantage of the ultimate captive market. >> one of the few ways they can stay in touch is on the phone. >> peter wagner is the executive director of a criminal justice reform group, wagner claims a sweetheart deal, calls for prison can reach $1 per minute compared to one leading provider's rate of 7 cents per minute for a long distance call on the outside. >> we live in a world where communications is now incredibly cheap. i can talk on skype for free, i

can have a cell phone with unlimited long distance. but in this one context, it can cost up to $1 a minute, one case where the free market isn't working. >> hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions for the price of communication. >> 60%, 70%, 90% of the cost of the call goes to the facility that gave the contract. that is wrong. that should be something the fcc firms. >> a woman named martha wright filed a class action lawsuit, she alleged unconscionable long distance rates, forcing her to either talk to her grandson or buy her medications.

it wasn't until 2013 that the fcc took action, imposing a 15 cent a minute limit on out of state calls. >> i have searched my soul, i have no other answer. >> commissionerrer minion, is fighting to make in-state calls more affordable too. >> the bulk of the calls 85% of them are intrastate, made within the borders of each state. we have not tackled those yet and that is what we are on the cusp of doing hopefully in the confines of this year. >> sheriffs are also speaking out defending the commissions they receive. >> all that money goes to jail operations. >> lawhorn says his facility

receives $150,000 of commissions each year, which pays for basic inmate services like air conditioning and microwaves but the cost of monitoring phone calls. >> people are known to run murder for hire out of jails, continuing to return drug rings inside jail. it is not just making phone calls back home for mom or for the right reason. >> some of the commissions are used to monitor criminal plans being made from inside jail. on the day we visited, this deputy was investigating a phone conversation between an alleged pimp and a prostitute. >> i listened in to see if i could hear any verbiage this would lead to criminal activity. >> pushing back against fcc

regulatory actions. a lawsuit filed in 2013 is still pending in court. the companies argue the government always rule's rules e millions of dollars of losses. the two denied our request for an interview but they have spoken publicly about the issue in the past. >> what we make bottom line after all our cost and commissions does represent a significant portion of our cost is a relatively small number. >> reporter: reform advocate peter wagner says this issue is more than just about dollars and cents. ploaciaemotional ties. >> when it's too expensive to call home, they don't. and family ties are strained and it's harder for people when they get back out of prison. >> earlier this year, bethany's husband was released from prison. today he's doing his best to

reconnect. >> all right, big one! >> if they had not been able to talk to each other do you think your youngest son would have the relationship he had with his father? >> totally, absolutely not. if they did not keep contact, i can't believe they would have the opportunity oget reacquainted now. >> reporter: even though she's no longer paying for calls, bethany hopes her fight for had a she says is fair will make an impact for another family in the future. >> "america tonight's" lori jane gliha joins us now to follow up on this. so again help us understand lori jane, is this the same policy everywhere? >> well joie there are hundreds of jails and prisons all across the country, different sizes, different situations, and the

fraziers learned when their family bounced from place to place in the beginning, it was hard to keep track of the money they were paying, there was no uniform way of tracking all that. and there's fees to set up an cd and take down the account and there's commissions that the different jails and prisons make. so the fcc is trying to make it more uniform for everybody. >> what is the fcc doing? >> today actually they finally announced their proposal for what they want to do for this and that includes capping the rates for all long distance and national calls. depending whether it's a jail or prison, it could go as low as 11 cents per minute and on top of that they want to ban excessive fees. they are discouraging commissions, doesn't say anything about banning those, planning to vote on this, end of october, october 22nd. >> lori jane, i know you looked into a lot of different

jurisdictions as you were reporting this story. is it possible, do you have the sense that different jurisdictions understand the complexity of this, the problems for the families and want to make any changes? >> absolutely. there are a variety of places that have already reduced their fines and fees and tried to make their adjustments and things like that. there are a lot of jails and prisons that are actually advocating why they have these commissions. the sheriff in the piece gets a 34% commission, he feels that's legitimate, he uses the things for security cameras tvs and microwaves, inmate services, law library things like that. there are actually more than 200 sheriffs that sent a letter to the fcc that say, what you do is not within our budget and we think is fair, we might have to shut off some phone services. there are concerns from some sheriffs. the person in our piece says he does think some of these places have gone to an extreme so he hopes there's going to be some

compromise but i know the fcc is expecting some legal action when they do make this vote on october 22nd. >> marianna's loidge"america toe gliha. later, paying the price twice. "america tonight's" adam may on low-level offenders and the law that keeps them from getting back on track. and hot on "america tonight's" website now, transgender texas, the trail blazing clinic helping kids transition. that's at aljazeera.com/americatonight. the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target weeknights 10:30p et

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>> don't try this at home! >> techknow, where technology meets humanity... saturday, 6:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> in our fast forward segment, could francisc stop and frisk bn constitutional? sarah hoye, how it can be abused. >> i'm standing there, and seeing the officer cross the street, hey you, come over here, this is another day, i'm like teaching, a professional, i'm on lunch break. a guy can't work? >> he was stopped by new york city police officers in 2006.

clarkson was teaching second grade at the time he had left this corner store and the officers stopped him. >> my story is no different than any other young man's story that grows up in the city. >> stop and frisk, he says it's not uncommon to be stopped. >> i've been getting stopped and frisked in that manner since i was 13, it becomes a normalized part of your life. >> fast-forward to the next stop towards halting unfair and arbitrary stops. nypd has made a change in policy. those subject to stop and frisk will get receipts afterward. they will detail the officer and the reason if for the stop in an attempt to increase

accountability and decrease community tensions. next, giving them a second chance? convicted for nonviolent crimes, why it's still hard for many offenders to get back on track and how that could change now. and the danger for dementia patients. thursday on "america tonight," correspondent sheila macvicar, new evidence for concern, why drugs given to calm dementia patients may be more deadly than previously thought. that's thursday on "america tonight." the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

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>> back now on the promise of rehabilitation in incarceration. lawmakers in maryland have taken a second look at second chances. low level offenders, convicted of low level drug ordinances, could help get them back on track after serving time or paying penalties. the issue came out of the national focus of stopping drug use. as adam may found in baltimore, it is a policy that could have unintended consequences and casualties. >> people no longer honored the good things i did, now i was being judged based on my worst moment. >> reporter: this letter from 2014, a background check, changed diamonde's life forever. >> the next line said do not let

diamonde be anywhere near your kids. >> her criminal record a 2008 arrest for marijuana possession. in her home state of maryland. >> i was pulled over, the officer said step out of the vehicle, and put me in handcuffs and then told me that my vehicle reeks oreekd ofreeked of marijus asked whasked why i was arreste. dogs were brought. >> were you arrested for how much? >> about two grams of emergency. >> while the laws have changed, the old laws continue to haunt many like brown.

she graduated from university of michigan with a degree in sports medicine. her transcript, mostly as and bs. she wanted to coach lacrosse. >> how did that marijuana arrest affect your ability to become a teacher? >> unfortunately i was deemed ineligible to volunteer or teach in baltimore city school system. everybody tells you, go to school, and complete your education and you're going to have a good job and end up well off, it turned out to me, to be a lie. >> america's public enemy number 1 in the united states is drug abuse. >> reporter: since president nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, the department of justice estimates it has cost taxpayers $215 billion a year, that's well over $1 trillion.

according to an analysis, by the aclu, more than 7 million americans were arrested for marijuana possession between 2001 and 2010. but now that states have decriminalled having small amounts of marijuana, many states are still paying a price for something that is no longer a crime. >> what should we do for people who have minor drug convictions but that conviction would now be legal because of decriminalization? >> we should take it off of their record so that we could allow them to be productive citizens. >> house bill 244, maryland's second chance act of 2015. >> maryland's governor larry hogan took a step towards

solving the problem. he signed the second chance act into law. brown was there for the moment, hope it helps people like her. the bill will help marylanders, to shield their court and police record. after a three year waiting period. essentially wiping the offense off their records. it will make tens of thousands more employable. according to the bill' bill's s, delegate kurt anderson. >> what was your motivation for sponsoring the second chance act? >> i represent baltimore city. our city has the second highest rate of unemployable african american males. one of the major drawbacks for our guys getting jobs is a minor criminal record, just one thing here or one thing there where they can't even get through door. we are trying to make sure at least one of the obstacles is

removed. >> reporter: but shielding criminal reports is controversial. delegate john cluster is a former police officer. he combed through arrest records to test second chance. >> the first name i looked up had 24 convictions in his -- on his record since 2006. out of those 24 convictions, he can shield 23 of them from a business owner. that's not a bart pardon of it. bad part of that, if you ever been convicted of a crime they're going to say yes one time but in reality he had 24 convictions on his record that the business owner is not going to be able to find out about. >> reporter: do you think it pus employers at risk? >> absolutely. when you have that kind of person who ha has that many drug conviction he he's still going to be stealing.

>> a former baltimore city ploir hpolice officer, he spent years on the front lines of the drug wars. today franklin is a leading national voice for declaring a ceasefire in the war on drugs. >> in this city like many other cities, fighting the war on drugs, coming out here day after day after day as cops, this is what we do. this is all we know. it's 60 to 70% of what we do every day. and many cops can't imagine what it would be like if we didn't do this. but i know what it would be like. we'd be going after rapists and murderers and pedophiles and we would be going after people who hurt other people. not people who are addicted to drugs. >> franklin leads a group of 150,000 law enforcement workers and supporters who are working

to end drug prohibition altogether. in other words to legalize all drugs. >> we can no longer continue this notion of trying to solve a public health issue with criminal justice solutions, it doesn't work. we can't arrest our way out of this. >> you compare this to the failures of alcohol prohibition. >> yes but 100 times worse. if you are someone who is addicted to drugs and you have to support your habit, in the illicit market you break into cars, you break into homes, you commit a robbery or two to buy the drugs from the drug dealer. >> the primary reason that blocks and blocks of baltimore look like this. the sand town neighborhood is a perfect example. once home to a thriving middle

class, today, one in three doesn't have a job, the drug trade account primary economy. >> if we were to end the war on drugs violent crime would drop dramatically. because you would no longer have these feuding gangs and crews trying to corner the drug selling market. the war on drugs is not a war on drugs, it's a war on people. people who may be selling the drugs for economic reasons. >> the governor just signed a bill that would allow some people to shield minor drug offenses from their record. do you think it will help? >> you can get over an addiction but you'll never ever get over a conviction. never. >> the war on drugs has hit the minority community especially hard. an aclu study found that blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at a rate more than three and a half times that of whites. that's despite similar marijuana usage. >> how would you describe the war on drugs?

>> i'd describe it as a war on black people. that's how i describe it. black people are the majority of people getting locked up. and the highest number of arrests are coming from drug offenses. >> denied the teaching profession she dreamed of because of her drug conviction, brown is now leading a group called out for justice. lobbying on behalf of ex offenders like herself. >> i got oask even though you're not in that school right now, are you where you need to be? >> i think i'm where i need to be because every day i wake up i do not want to be the director of out for justice. but i can't stop. i can't stop doing it because i know there are a group of people that need someone that understands their issues, and that are going to fight and lead and be the person that really helps them make change when it comes to people with criminal

records. and i guess i've been put in this position, to help lead that charge. >> "america tonight's" adam may with a second look at second chances. that's "america tonight." tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/americatonight. talk to us on twitter or facebook and please come back. we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow.

>> i'm ali velshi. "on target" tonight, how innocent americans tonight could end up labeled terrorists, turning their lives and livelihoods yum side down. upside down. the united states announced sanctions against five groups of people across the globe, connected to i.s.i.l, at a counterterrorism summit in new york, president obama said, part of america's commitment to use all means