Twenty-eight-year-old Joel Maldonado, of Lancaster, is serving a 12- to 26-year robbery sentence at the State Correctional Institution-Fayette in Luzerne Township where he pays $16.50 a month for a 47-channel package.
But he says Texas-based Correctional Cable TV charges $15.75 and that the state's 75-cent fee is an "unlawful increase" - especially since he makes only 33 cents an hour doing prison maintenance work.
Corrections spokeswoman Susan Bensinger says when inmates sign up for cable TV they agree to the extra fee, which has been added for four years now.