Opposition House Leader  Mike Farnworth has lined up alongside his B.C. Liberal counterpart on the issue of the high cost of local phone calls for inmates.

On May 18, Farnworth told the Straight he "does not have a problem with prisoners having to pay 90 cents for a phone call" within the B.C. Corrections Branch.

The exact same words were uttered a week earlier in a Straight interview with John Les, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

Farnworth, Port Coquitlam-Burke Mountain MLA, was responding to a Straight interview request following several stories on how much B.C. inmates are charged to make calls from prison. (They cannot receive calls.) He also admitted he had "not really heard anything before" on the issue in his time as MLA.

"I don’t have a problem per se, as long a minimum number of calls are allowed," he said.

Farnworth did not know inmates can place free calls to lawyers and government agencies, but said, "That’s good, great." However, he did not think 90 cents was a bad fee for a phone call.

"It’s prison, not daycamp," he said.

Over the past several weeks, the Straight heard from lawyers and advocates for female inmates—such as the Elizabeth Fry Society and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association—all decrying the call structure as "prohibitively expensive" and a "discriminatory tax".

Inmate Betty Krawczyk has also complained about the cost, noting that she earns less than $4 per day in prison.

But on May 15 Les dismissed those thoughts out of hand.

"I don’t think 90 cents is prohibitive," Les said. "I don’t think it denies anybody their ability to make phone calls. I mean, 90 cents, after all, is not a big chunk of money.

"I also support the fact that any excess revenues that are accumulated this way go into other prison amenities and services."

Now Les has someone, his own opposite-number critic in the legislature, to back up his views on the subject.