FCC, DOJ Ask Court to Dismiss, Consolidate or Deny Challenges to ICS Rate Caps
Judges shouldn't rule on previous FCC inmate calling service rate caps because they were significantly altered in an August reconsideration order, the commission and DOJ told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. There isn't any reason for…
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the court to address the caps in a 2015 order because they have been stayed and "will now never take effect," said the government reply brief posted by the commission Tuesday in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 and previously consolidated cases. It said the D.C. Circuit either should dismiss the challenges as moot or consolidate them with new challenges to the recon order, which will raise the tiered rate caps for debit/prepaid ICS domestic calls in prisons and jails from 11-22 cents per minute to 13-31 cents per minute, but without regulating site commission payments to correctional authorities (see 1608040037). If the D.C. Circuit nevertheless decides to rule on the 2015 order, it should uphold the commission decisions, said the brief responding to the arguments of ICS providers, states and sheriffs (see 1606070030). Global Tel*Link said in a release it challenged the FCC recon order at the D.C. Circuit. GTL and others have asked the commission to stay the order pending judicial review of underlying challenges. An inmate advocacy group opposed the requests (see 1609060072). Network Communications International also opposed the stay petitions -- from GTL, Securus, Telmate and states and sheriffs -- in a filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 12-375.