NCIC, UCC Seek Changes to Inmate Calling Draft
Change the FCC’s draft inmate calling service order, set for a vote next week (see 2007160072), to either eliminate transaction fees on a single call or make clear the fees are capped at the allowed ancillary service amount, NCIC Inmate…
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Communications said. “The draft Remand Order would perpetuate and codify the unjust and unreasonable single call rates that certain ICS service providers charge inmates and their families,” NCIC said: “The Remand Order would permit ICS parties to pass through egregiously-high third-party transaction fees, so long as they do not mark up the fee. In 2015, the FCC prohibited flat-rate calling, but certain ICS providers continue to charge between $9.99 and $14.99 for the completion of a single call” by “charging a per-minute rate subject to the interstate ICS cap, but then tacking on a third-party transaction fee,” NCIC said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-375. The United Church of Christ sought tweaks, in calls with aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. It’s good the draft requested comment on lowering interstate rates, and “the rates ultimately adopted should be lower than the proposed rates,” it said: UCC “is pleased that the draft … proposes to end the distinction between debit and collect calls and to lower the differential between jails and prisons and to vastly reduce the significantly higher rates dependent upon the size of a jail. The proposal to address international rates for the first time is welcome. The FCC should also seek comment on the particular needs of prisoners who are deaf and hard of hearing.”