The City of New York just became the first major US city to make calls from jail free.
"For too long have people in custody faced barriers to basic aspects of everyday life that can help create more humane jails," said Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
Inmates in custody were previously charged 50 cents for the first minute of a phone call, and five cents for any additional minutes. Now the Department of Correction will cover the cost of the more than 25,000 calls that are made from New York City jails, the city said. People in the general population will be able to make calls every three hours anywhere in the United States for a total of 21 minutes.
The measure went into effect Wednesday after being passed last year by the city council.
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