The era of telecom providers charging high rates to incarcerated people and their families could soon be over, according to the Federal Communications Commission, with the regulatory agency saying it will “end exorbitant call charges” next month .
The FCC's proposed rules would significantly reduce existing per-minute rate limits for out-of-state and international audio calls from correctional facilities and apply those limits to in-state audio calls , the agency announced Wednesday.
The FCC on July 18 “will vote to end the exorbitant phone and video call fees that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades,” he said in a press release Wednesday.
“Congress empowered the FCC to close the last few loopholes in the communications system that has had a detrimental effect on families and recidivism rates across the country,” the FCC said of Martha Wright's Fair and Reasonable Communications Act -Reed, signed by President Biden early last year.
If adopted, callers to large prisons using a single service to make a 15-minute audio call will pay 90 cents instead of $11.35 under today's rate and charge caps, and the callers to a small jail will pay $1.35 instead of the $12.10 billed today for those 15 minutes of phone time, the FCC said.
The legislation clarified the FCC's authority to regulate calls to the state from prisons, as well as its authority to regulate video calls. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the agency had successfully imposed rate caps for out-of-state calls from prisons and calls, but not in-state calls.
“Exorbitant costs and fees increase depression, isolation and loneliness among incarcerated individuals, actively harming them rather than providing any discernible benefit,” a coalition of organizations said in a June 17 letter to the FCC, asking the agency to lower the rates as much as possible.
