Inmate Advocacy Group Backs FCC Ancillary Fee Limits in Brief to Court on ICS Order
Inmate advocates are focused on defending FCC limits on ancillary service charges in a 2015 order that capped inmate calling service (ICS) rates (see 1510220059). The commission had the authority to regulate the ancillary service charges and is entitled to…
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judicial deference in its statutory interpretations, said the intervenor brief (in Pacer) Thursday of Ulandis Forte and other individuals and groups (Wright Petitioners) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing ICS provider and state/sheriff challenges to the order (Global Tel*Link, et.al. v. FCC, No. 15-1461 and consolidated cases). The commission carried out a "meticulous examination" of the record to decide on the restrictions for the ancillary fees, which "have been used to circumvent rate caps," the brief said. The late Martha Wright, a retired nurse in Washington, D.C., was paying more than $100 a month to call Forte, her grandson incarcerated in Arizona, it said. She filed a petition that helped prod the FCC to act.