Phone Providers and Prisoners Groups Spar Over ‘Usurious’ Rates, ‘Confiscatory’ Proposal

"The comments demonstrate that the Commission cannot implement a one-size-fits-all regime for interstate inmate calling services,” Global Tel*Link said (http://bit.ly/Zn5nv7). “It is simply unworkable to implement a uniform national rate structure for all correctional facilities, without regard to the size, location, security requirements, and the types of services the facilities need or without taking account of state and local management, policy, and budgetary decisions.” The commission should leave prison calling to state and local governments, and prison administrators, it said. Comments comparing ICS to traditional long distance calling rates “demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding” of the ICS industry and the types of services required, GTL said. The company asked the commission to “refrain from adopting rate caps for interstate inmate calling services that are based on interexchange service rates that bear no relationship to the actual services demanded by correctional facilities."

"The record in this proceeding does not provide the Commission with solid ground on which to make the drastic rate reductions that the Wright Petitioners request,” wrote Securus, the other major ICS company (http://bit.ly/Zn6Zoz). Martha Wright petitioned for rules to address the high cost of telephone calls to her incarcerated grandson in 2003. He was released last year (CD Dec 3 p16). No commenter was able to submit a “credible” study to refute a report demonstrating that 25 cent-per-minute rate caps would be “confiscatory in the vast majority of the sites that Securus serves,” it said. “The issues surrounding inmate telephone calls are complex and in many ways are out of our hands. These issues are, rather, often in the hands of corrections and enforcement officials that must balance the needs of inmates, friends and family, judges, victims, witnesses, and the general public. The Commission should recognize the importance of reserving penological policy to their capable hands."

But the ICS providers failed to provide any support for their arguments, said Martha Wright and several prisoners’ rights groups (http://bit.ly/Zn7Wgy). They offered “only generalizations and inaccurate conclusions on questions of both law and fact,” the groups said. In the absence of any specific evidence opposing the adoption of a benchmark rate, the FCC must adopt petitioners’ proposal to impose a benchmark rate of 7 cents per minute, with no set-up fees or other charges, the groups said. They asked that the FCC require the new rate to be integrated into existing contracts within one year. They also rejected a CenturyLink request to establish an advisory committee. “ICS providers have used every available option at hand to delay FCC action in this proceeding over the past 12 years,” they wrote. “Aided by the FCC’s inaction, millions of inmates and their families have endured usurious rates and abusive practices while the ICS providers have reaped billions in revenue. Further delay is no longer an option."

The Congressional Black Caucus urged the FCC to act, arguing a “plain reading” of the Communications Act shows the FCC has “broad authority to regulate both interstate and intrastate inmate calling services” (http://bit.ly/Zn8GCj). “Exorbitant” ICS rates disproportionately affect African American and Hispanic inmates and their families, the CBC wrote. The proposed rate of 7 cents per minute for interstate calls is reasonable, CBC said, urging the commission to act “expeditiously.”

"It does not appear from the record that all charges can be justified on the bases of additional security measures,” NARUC wrote (http://bit.ly/Zn3MFE). New York’s prison phone rates of 4.8 cents per minute include all security features required by state corrections officials, NARUC said. Texas’s rates, which range from 23 to 43 cents a minute, also include all necessary security features, the association said. However, NARUC asked the commission to not get involved in intrastate calls or operator services. The agency’s authority is unclear there, and the commission should issue a further NPRM with its “proffered legal rationale” so that commenters can respond, NARUC said.