Coalition increases pressure to reduce inmate phone rates

A dozen national organizations – including CWA, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, Center for Media Justice, United Church of Christ Office of Communications Inc. – filed a brief with the FCC urging swift action regarding inmates telephone rates.

According to the brief:

“As has been demonstrated in the record... phone calls made from correctional facilities are often exorbitantly high-priced. The main factors contributing to such high rates are excessive commissions paid by ICS (inmate calling services) providers to state prisons systems.”

Civil rights groups and others have been campaigning for years to reduce these harsh fees on people who are almost invariably from low-income families, and who are already paying society through a loss of freedom. Inmates routinely pay 15 times the ordinary long distance rates. According to NBC, in 2003:

“A Washington, D.C.-area woman, Martha Wright, said she was paying about $200 a month for one 15-minute phone call a week with her grandson, who was in prison. Civil rights groups filed a class-action suit on her behalf; the case was dismissed by the judge, who referred Wright to the FCC.”

Ten year later, as Speed Matters reported, the FCC finally responded favorably, and asked for comment. The coalition, therefore, is asking that the FCC intercede and reduce the disparity between what people on the outside pay and what inmates and their families are charged.

“Specifically,” the brief said, “the Commission should cap ICS rates at the lowest possible per-minute rate that is justified by providers’ costs. Furthermore, the Commission should eliminate needless per-call fees and other unjustifiable fees ...”

CWA and the coalition believe that in the end everyone, except those profiteering from inmates, will benefit. These changes, “will make it possible for inmates to maintain connections with their families and friends, facilitate their reentry into society, reduce recidivism, and consequently strengthen communities and the nation as a whole.”

Comments to FCC re prisoners’ phone rates (FCC, Mar. 25, 2013)

FCC: Prison phone rates far too high (NBC News, Jan. 2013)

FCC proposes end to inmate phone gouging (Speed Matters, Jan. 2, 2013)