The FCC Vote Is In, Overcharging Prisoners’ Families Is on Its Way Out
WASHINGTON — At an open meeting today, the FCC passed proposed rules that substantively reform what advocates call a broken prison and jail telephone industry. The industry is dominated by Global Tel-Link, which controls 50 percent of the market for correctional institutions, and Securus.
According to an infographic produced by the Center for Media Justice (CMJ), and an article authored by the Prison Policy Initiative, the new rules will, among other things:
Cap predatory prison phone rates at 11 cents per minute for calls from state and federal facilities, and 22 cents per minute from jails.
Eliminate abusive hidden fees like connection and flat-rate calling fees.
Strongly discourage, but not directly ban, industry “commissions,” or kickbacks, of vendor profits to correctional facilities.
“After 12-plus years, millions of friends, families and legal representatives will finally have relief from unconscionable and egregious inmate calling rates,” said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “I am grateful for the tireless advocacy of the Media Action Grassroots Network who brought this issue to my attention three years ago and continued to passionately push for relief for the most economically vulnerable in our society. Today, the FCC will make a real difference for the families and friends of 2.4 million inmates and their 2.7 million children. What may seem like a small step in the overall criminal justice reform effort will go a long way in enabling families to stay connected, which, in turn, should help to reduce our outrageous recidivism and incarceration rates, which are among the highest in the industrialized world.”
According to a report released last week by a coalition of groups including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Forward Together, one in three families go into debt because of the high cost of maintaining contact with incarcerated family members. A fact sheet from CMJ indicates that without FCC reforms, some families are charged as much as $17 for a 15-minute conversation.
The package of reforms ushered in by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and passed by the regulatory agency, was heralded by advocate organizations that comprise the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, along with myriad criminal justice reform and civil rights groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
“In passing the most comprehensive reforms to date to the prison phone industry, champions like Commissioner Clyburn listened to those long considered voiceless—the families of the 2.4 million people incarcerated in the United States,” said Malkia A. Cyril, executive director at the Center for Media Justice and co-founder of the Media Action Grassroots Network. “While there is more work to do to ban commissions and protect the right to in-person visitation, the dozens of organizations and almost 200,000 individuals that fought long and hard for this day should be proud. It’s long past time to reform the unreasonable rates predatory companies impose upon on a captive consumer base.”
