Inmate Rights Advocates Hit Securus, GTL Late Filings Citing Threats

Securus CEO Richard Smith said he's taking the threats seriously, and rejected the criticism of the filings to the agency. “Give me a break. I can’t tell the FCC that they’re generating personal death threats? Really?” he told us Tuesday. A GTL spokesperson said: "This matter is currently open and under review at the FCC. GTL will address whatever issues that need to be attended to by [CEO Brian] Oliver in the context of the FCC process.” FCC spokesmen had no comment. At its Oct. 22 meeting, the FCC adopted an order capping ICS rates, limiting ancillary fees and discouraging provider “site commission” payments to correctional authorities (see 1510220059).

Securus officials received death threats in Internet forums based on FCC public statements, Smith said in a filing last week in docket 12-375. He cited an FCC statement that ICS calls could cost as much as $14 a minute, which he said was extremely rare (see 1510270065). Threats included: to “beat senseless” Smith and GTL's Oliver; "bastards are going to be gunned down in the streets;” and “Why don’t we find out where these executives live and do something about this?” GTL then made a filing citing similar threats (see 1510290017) and Securus made a second filing citing threats posted on reddit.com. The companies said their filings were exempt from the Sunshine Act lobbying restrictions because they “directly relate to an emergency in which the safety of life is endangered.”

The Martha Wright Petitioners said the late filings violated an FCC rule that prohibits making presentations to decision-makers on any matter listed on the FCC’s meeting agenda “from the day after the Sunshine Agenda is released until the Commission releases the text of a decision or order relating to that matter or removes the item from the Sunshine Agenda.” (The FCC text still isn't out.) In a motion posted Tuesday, the group disputed the companies’ claim to an “emergency” exemption from the prohibition: “The sole basis of this ‘emergency’ are excerpts from the comment section of news articles available on the Internet. While the Martha Wright Petitioners certainly do not support threats against the health or safety of ICS providers and their employees, the random sampling of Reddit comments is hardly the ‘emergency’ contemplated in the Commission’s rules. Mere threats on a comment board do not rise [to] ‘a party finding itself in an emergency situation.’”

“Instead, it is clear that the submissions by Securus and GTL were submitted to affect the FCC’s decision-making process while it finalizes" its ICS order, the Martha Wright Petitioners said. “Using Reddit comments to justify the submission of ex parte filings that take the Commission to task for ‘inciting public opinion regarding ICS providers to dangerous levels’ and including ‘incendiary’ language in press statements, is a blatant attempt to alter the rules to be contained in the [order], and the ICS providers failed to provide any evidence of a real emergency situation.” The filings should be struck from the record and the matter referred to the FCC general counsel and Enforcement Bureau for review, the group said.

Securus’s Smith said most of the threats were made specifically against him in various online forums, particularly on reddit.com, but also included a few phone calls to the company’s Dallas headquarters. Securus reported the threats to the FBI and the Dallas police, he said: “They both visited here and took full statements.” Smith said both he and the company have taken added precautions, including round-the-clock police surveillance. Securus would respond to the motion in the docket, but in the meantime, he said: “When I receive, and my family receives, personal death threats; when I have to have 7-by-24 help from a police department -- and by the way, they recommended it -- I think that rises to my definition of an emergency.”

Smith said he believes the threats were directly connected to the FCC statements. An agency news release said ICS calls were “sometimes ballooning to $14 per minute” and extra charges can add “as much as 40%” to the cost of calls “between inmates and their loved ones.” He said the statements were misleading because Securus’ average ICS rates were 21 cents per minute and its ancillary fees added only about 10 percent to calling costs. He said the statements were also “irresponsible” because qualifiers such as “sometimes” and “as much as” were too often lost in press reports and consumer understanding.

Smith said the $14/minute charge had become embedded in the popular consciousness. As part of a broader effort to promote inmate rehabilitation, President Obama Monday cited the FCC actions and said that inmates and their families, including children, "were at times charged $14 per minute phone rates." Smith said the figure even popped up as an answer to a radio show trivia question about the cost of an inmate phone call. “They don’t hear that as one call out of the 15 million a month that we complete,” he said. “It is wrong that I’m getting death threats because the FCC says really dumb things like, 'charges are as high as $14 a minute.' They ought to stop doing that.”

Smith said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who spearheaded the ICS effort, had also gone “overboard” in some statements that were similar to those in the news release. “I’ve never seen an FCC commissioner be as emotionally tied to driving people to her side of an issue," he said. Clyburn’s office had no comment Tuesday.

HRDC’s Wright said the ICS provider filings illustrate “the monopoly nature of the ICS system” in which inmates and their families have no service choice. “It is pathetic that Securus and GTL would waste the time of federal regulators over isolated rants on online forums,” he said Monday. “Given the billions in [site commission] kickbacks they have given law enforcement agencies over the years, I would expect that a phone call complaint from GTL or Securus to the police agencies on their payroll would elicit an immediate investigation. It’s not hard to track down people who post threats online. And of course, there is a distinction between an actual threat and expressing displeasure at greedy, exploitive and unjust business practices. Of greater threat to Securus and GTL is having Standard and Poor’s downgrade their business status due to the FCC action limiting rates while still allowing them to pay kickbacks, which they have long done.”

Michael Hamden, a Chapel Hill, N.C., attorney who has advocated lower ICS rates, said: “I've seen the filings and a few of the comments cited in support. The long-standing, egregious exploitation of prisoners and their families by some ICS providers has understandably engendered outrage. But threats of violence are beyond the pale and are a concern. The FCC's recent action should go a long way in moderating that anger and reducing the risk that anyone will be physically harmed. And, of course, credible threats can and should be referred to law enforcement authorities.”