GTL Steps Up Attack on FCC ICS Draft; Coalition Targets Site Commissions

"The FCC Proposal would reduce all ICS rates to levels that are not supported by the record cost data and will not ensure fair compensation for ICS providers as required by law," GTL said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-375. "The proposed rate caps also would not achieve the FCC’s goal of 'market-based' ICS reform or the FCC’s legislative mandates, and would radically reduce or eliminate the availability of important ICS security features and undercut GTL’s ability to offer new technologies and innovative services for inmates and correctional facilities. Further, the FCC Proposal would not provide a rational implementation schedule that recognizes the reality of the commercial ICS marketplace and the need for ICS providers to renegotiate hundreds of contracts."

GTL urged the FCC to adopt the components of a September 2014 ICS provider proposal that was "designed to achieve the FCC's goals of implementing 'comprehensive, permanent ICS reforms' that rely on a market-based approach to encourage competition in order to reduce rates and ensure fair ICS compensation." The components were: non-tiered backstop rate caps; a uniform, industry-defined list of capped ancillary charges; and the replacement of site commissions with an administrative-support payment that reflects "legitimate correctional institution costs and is recovered through an additive to the per-minute ICS rate," GTL said.

Morgan Lewis attorney Andrew Lipman made another filing on behalf of unnamed clients with an interest in the provision of ICS. "This letter addresses two intertwined problems with the FCC’s proposed approach -- the confiscatory rates that will result from adoption of rate caps excluding site commission costs while failing to bar or regulate such payments; and the FCC’s expectation that ICS providers will be able to transition to such confiscatory rates within 90 days of the effective date of the FCC’s rules," he said in a letter posted Tuesday. "The FCC either needs to prohibit or regulate site commissions, for example by adopting the proposal to prohibit all site commissions except for a small per-minute additive above the proposed rate caps, or its needs to grandfather all existing contracts that require payment of site commissions."

Dozens of individuals' filings posted in the docket Tuesday called on the FCC to act. Many came from a Silent Sentence Coalition template that lauded the draft order's proposals to cap ICS rates and limit ancillary fees, but voiced concerns about the lack of clear-cut regulatory actions against site commissions. "Over the last 15 years, inmates across the United States have had their communication with loved ones limited by phone rates that far exceeded those paid by the average American. Meaningful reform of the ICS marketplace is long overdue and the Commission should be applauded for taking up this important issue," said Matthew Tarpley of McDonough, Georgia, who used the template. But he added, "It was confusing and disconcerting to find that commissions were not addressed as part of the reform language."

"The record suggests that the FCC has clear jurisdiction over commissions under Section 201(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 and by addressing this important issue, the FCC will establish a series of reforms that bring low rates, limit fees, and ultimately establish a new marketplace where inmates, service providers, and facilities can all find a common ground," Tarpley said. "I urge the FCC to bring together all stakeholders in this debate in a roundtable meeting, soliciting comments, cost studies, and other valuable information from interested parties to reach a consensus that allows any reforms to stand for long after the FCC vote on October 22."