FCC Backtracks on 2024 Order to Cut Prison Phone and Video Rates by Half
On June 30, the Federal Communications Commission announced a two-year postponement of a rule to lower the price of phone and video calls in prisons and jails. As PLN reported, the FCC voted in 2024 to approve the regulation, which was set to go into effect nationwide later this year and promised to rein in predatory price gouging by prison telecom companies. Along with curbing the kickbacks paid by companies to corrections systems, it would have capped phone rates to 6 cents per minute in state prisons and to no more than 12 cents per minute in local jails; rates for video calls were reduced to 16 cents in prisons and a maximum of 25 cents per minute in jails. [See: PLN, Oct. 2024, p. 1].
In a statement announcing the postponement, the Trump-appointed FCC Chair Brendan Carr said that the price caps had led to “negative, unintended consequences,” such as making fees “too low” to cover “required safety measures” and not allowing enough time for states to find alternative revenue sources. In a separate statement, FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez strongly criticized the decision, writing that the agency, instead of enforcing a bipartisan law, is “now stalling, shielding a broken system that inflates costs and rewards kickbacks to correctional facilities at the expense of incarcerated individuals and their loved ones.”
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the 2024 order was expected to save millions of dollars each year for incarcerated people and their loved ones. Under the current rates, family members have reported spending upwards of $500 per month and working multiple jobs to be able to afford calls to their incarcerated relatives. By backtracking on reducing costs by approximately half, the FCC has deprived these families from much-needed economic relief.
One group, in particular, has been vocal about keeping the old rules and rates intact: a cohort of sheriff’s departments that receive kickbacks and commission from telecom companies they sign exclusive contracts with. Most notably, in February of this year, the sheriff of Baxter County, Arkansas, John Montgomery, said that detainees at the local jail would no longer have access to any phone services at all beginning on April 1 due to the policy shift. As The Arkansas Times reported, Baxter County contracts with Securus LLC for phone services and the company sends a percentage of the fees it collects to the sheriff’s office each month. The new FCC rule would have eliminated that commission.
In April, a coalition of 11 attorneys general representing New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and other states filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that directly challenged Carr’s rationale for the postponement. Providing affordable phone rates, the document argued, was entirely feasible without sacrificing facility or public safety. Additionally, the deeper connections afforded by cheaper phone calls reduce recidivism and help with reintegration—facts that, as the attorneys general highlighted, the FCC itself recognized in its 2024 order.
Additional Sources: The Verge, Vera Institute
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