Global Tel-Link, one of the nation’s largest providers...
Global Tel-Link, one of the nation’s largest providers of inmate calling services (ICS), said the FCC “must continue to defer to state and local authorities” on whether prison phone rates are “reasonable” (http://bit.ly/10LEVtT). In response to the FCC’s NPRM on…
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prison phone call reforms (CD Dec 31 p6), GTL sided with state departments of correction and law enforcement groups in defending the rates. The rates which fund “sophisticated security elements,” GTL said, are properly determined by local policymakers. ICS present “unique issues that are not susceptible to one-size-fits-all federal regulation,” the provider said. The FCC does have “broad license” to ensure “just and reasonable” interstate calling rates, “but the power is not absolute,” GTL said. “While the FCC has certain obligations under the Act, the historic regulation of prisons by the states and the unique challenges presented by state prisons and ICS, place regulation of ICS more appropriately with the states.” Dozens of prisoners and Deaf advocacy organizations have urged the FCC to step in (CD March 26 p6).