DC Circuit Rejects Prisoner's Request to Enforce FCC Inmate Calling Rate Caps
A court denied a Louisiana prisoner's bid to enforce FCC inmate calling service rate caps adopted in 2015 and revised in 2016, but vacated in 2017. A mandamus petition "has not demonstrated a 'clear and indisputable' right to relief," ruled…
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Judges David Tatel, Thomas Griffith and Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week (In re: James Colvin, No. 18-1110). They noted Colvin argued he's being charged a per-minute ICS rate exceeding FCC permanent rate caps of as low as 13 cents per minute. "The rates being charged, however, do not exceed the interim rate caps [of 21 and 25 cents per minute] established by the Commission in 2013, and petitioner has not demonstrated that any other rate caps are currently in effect," wrote the panel, noting the court's 2017 Global Tel*Link v. FCC ruling undoing the permanent rate caps (see 1706130047). The FCC, Securus Technologies and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections opposed the mandamus request (see 1809170030).