Massachusetts has made calls to prisons and jails free, but funding for the cloud program has been cut.

The initial $20 million is intended to cover the first eight months of free phone calls after the law takes effect. If phone usage remains stable or continues to rise, the $10 million allocation will likely not be enough this fiscal year. One sheriff warned that corrections officials may have to limit or shut down phone access to curb rising bills.

“If the money doesn't come back to us, I have to make a decision. The phones may be turned off,” said Nicholas Cocchi, sheriff of Hampden County and president of the Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association. Sheriffs oversee the county's jails and correctional facilities, while the state runs the prisons.

“We Massachusetts sheriffs are committed to doing the right thing. We are committed to obeying and enforcing the law. We are simply frustrated,” said Cocchi, a Democrat from Ludlow. “They saved money [with the initial $20 million]but it just wasn't enough. The fact that they cut it again is just a slap in the face to me.”

Lawyers, family members and others have pushed for years to make the calls free, arguing that families are being ripped off by high prices and that public entities that collect a portion of the payments are profiting from a vulnerable population. When Healey signed the law last year, Massachusetts became the fifth state to make calls from prisons and jails free.

State leaders said Friday they would support new legislation that would provide Massachusetts prison and detention center inmates with “unlimited free phone calls.”

House Speaker Ron Mariano left open the possibility of a cash injection in an additional spending bill.

And Senate President Karen E. Spilka indicated that lawmakers intend to allocate money to cover the cost of free calls in the long-term operating budgets of the sheriffs' and corrections departments; they currently have money set aside in a separate fund.

“It is a moral imperative and a legal obligation to ensure that inmates can contact their loved ones,” said Gray Milkowski, a spokesman for Spilka. “We are committed to working with the [Healey] “We must work together to ensure that the program is implemented smoothly this year and in the years to come.”

Healey aides, who originally requested $35 million to cover costs this fiscal year, said they will likely have to ask for more money from the legislature in the coming months. State law requires their government to make quarterly payments to prison and jail officials.

The House of Representatives had proposed $35 million in its budget, while the Senate did not provide any money to cover the costs this fiscal year. In a budget agreement passed last month, the chambers agreed to $10 million.

Making matters worse, authorities aren't sure how much money is actually needed. When lawmakers passed the law mandating free phone calls, inmates and their families had to pay between 12 cents per minute for calls within the state. state institutions to 14 cents at most county jails, according to state and county data. A single 20-minute phone call costs nearly $3 in many cases, and families said a video call can cost $5.

Department of Correction officials said they have since negotiated a modified contract with phone provider Securus that lowers the price per minute to 8 cents. Scott Croteau, a department spokesman, said the contract runs through 2028.

Cocchi said his office has also tried to cut costs and now pays less than 2 cents per minute for calls from the Hampden County facility.

But advocates and lawmakers urged the state to go a step further and negotiate an entirely new contract that includes both the sheriffs and the corrections department to further reduce costs.

“One reason this bill was passed was to curb this exploitation, not just dump it on the state,” said Jesse White, policy director for Prisoners' Legal Services. “I think it's the legislature's duty to fully fund the bill. But I also think it's the state's duty to make sure these companies aren't profiting without good reason.”

Overall, the number of calls has skyrocketed. In November, the month before the law went into effect, there were 345,310 calls to Department of Correction facilities; in December, that number rose to over 500,000, and in May, the number was over 760,000, according to state data.

Jarelis Miranda, 31, said she spends “at least” $300 to $500 a month to talk several times a day with her husband, Paulino Miranda, who is serving a 15-year to life sentence at MCI-Norfolk.

“It ate up a big part of my monthly budget,” said Jarelis Miranda. “It's nice to know that once he hangs up, we don't have to do the stutter step, [figuring out] how much money we still have in the account.”

Joanna Levesque, whose boyfriend Christopher O'Connor is serving a 16-year sentence at the Old Colony Correctional Center, said she often has to choose between paying rent and putting gas in her car or calling him most days.

“Some days we make three calls,” she said. Without adequate resources, she fears authorities could limit the number of calls each person can make or the time they have available. Currently, inmates in state facilities are typically allowed to make phone calls between 8 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., state officials said.

“Yes, people are incarcerated,” Levesque said, “but they are still human beings and they are entitled to basic human rights, to be able to talk to their loved ones and build a relationship with them.”

Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Democrat from Marlborough and co-chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said lawmakers often provide additional funding for sheriff departments in smaller spending bills later in the year.

But Eldridge warned that without additional funding, sheriffs or state officials would not unilaterally restrict phone calls to family members. The free call program has proven “incredibly successful,” he said.

“This,” he said, “violates the letter of the law.”

Matt Stout can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @mattpstout.