After years of debate, there’s now a consensus among inmate calling service providers that the FCC should adopt interstate and intrastate rate caps, wrote the attorney representing petitioners who had asked the commission in 2012 to take action on high calling prices. Parting ways with other advocates for prisoners, Deborah Golden, an attorney representing the petitioners -- who included the late Martha Wright (see 1501200054) -- wrote in reply comments that the commission should focus on setting rate caps and regulating ancillary fees instead of controversial commission payments from ICS providers to correctional facilities. Tuesday was the reply deadline in the Further NPRM (see 1410230026) on making interim interstate caps permanent, establishing intrastate caps, and taking action on ancillary fees and commission payments.
Comments are due Jan. 5, replies Jan. 20 in docket 12-375 on the FCC rulemaking notice on inmate calling services (ICS), said a Wireline bureau public notice Friday. The commission is seeking comment on making interim interstate rate caps permanent and on creating intrastate caps, and on how to deal with payments to correctional facilities, and ancillary fees (see 1410230026). A single rate for inmate calling service providers could “result in ICS providers refusing to provide service to smaller facilities and jails,” Blooston Mordkofsky’s Mary Sisak, representing the National Sheriffs' Association, and Breanna Bock-Nielsen, NSA director-government affairs, told Wireline Bureau pricing policy division staff Nov. 19, said an ex parte notice filed and posted on Friday. Global Tel*Link responded to Praeses’ Oct. 3 ex parte filing that argued the payment of commissions is not prohibited. Praeses, a consultant to correctional facilities, receives a portion of the commissions, and “its position regarding site commissions may be heavily influenced by its self-interest,” Global Tel*Link said in a letter to the commission posted as an ex parte notice, also Friday. Praeses didn't comment on Monday.
FCC commissioners, despite partisan divisions, approved as expected (see 1410160055) issuing a Further NPRM Friday, seeking comment on a number of inmate calling services (ICS) reforms. Republicans Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly concurred in part, and questioned whether the agency has the legal authority to enact rate caps and other reforms.
The FCC is expected Friday to approve issuing a further rulemaking notice on inmate calling services (ICS), said industry attorneys and inmate advocates Thursday. Sources representing three commissioners, a majority of the commission, also said their commissioners planned to back the item.
Inmate calling service providers battled over the impact of the ICS reforms being considered by the FCC. Securus said in a letter to the commission, made available to us Thursday, that rival Pay-Tel’s reform proposal “is simply an attempt to advance the business objectives of one carrier.”
Pay-Tel Communications submitted an “Ethical Proposal for Reform of Inmate Calling Rates and Fees” to the FCC calling for lower interstate and intrastate calling rates for state and federal prisons than the proposal submitted by Global Tel*Link, Securus Technologies and Telmate, but higher rates for local, county and regional jail calls, according to a comparison of the proposals posted as an ex parte notice Wednesday in docket 12-375 (http://bit.ly/1nd1aXJ). Pay-Tel would cap prison calls at 8 cents per minute, compared with 20 cents per minute under the proposal from other ICS providers, the filing said. The two ICS proposals were submitted as a Further NPRM circulates at the FCC (CD Sept 26 p10). Rates would be capped at 26 cents per minute for jails with an average population of less than 350 inmates, and 22 cents/minute for larger jails, Pay-Tel said. The proposal from the other ICS providers had the same 20 cents/minute cap for jails as prisons. While the Global Tel*Link, Securus and Telmate’s proposed rate caps and ban on commission payments to facilities would take effect 90 days after adoption by the FCC, Pay-Tel would grandfather contract rates and commissions for a minimum of 18 months, the filing said. Among other differences, Pay-Tel called for lower caps on transaction, money transfer and validation fees, said the comparison. Prisons and jails have different costs, so “it doesn’t make sense to have a single cap that applies without regard to the type of facility,” said Brooks Pierce attorney Marcus Trathen, representing Pay-Tel. Grandfathering current contracts would allow facilities to “get beyond the current budget before they are impacted by the new rules,” Trathen said. Securus is evaluating the proposal, said Stephanie Joyce, an Arent Fox communications lawyer representing the company.
Key aspects of the Further NPRM on inmate phone call charges circulating at the FCC are being opposed by local regulators. The FCC lacks legal authority to cap intrastate inmate calling rates or pre-empt local PUC’s decisions, NARUC said in a statement to us. The Alabama Public Service Commission also challenged the agency’s legal authority to bar commissions inmate calling service (ICS) providers pay to jails and prisons, as the FCC is also proposing.
An FCC Further NPRM on inmate calling circulated Thursday, as expected (CD Sept 25 p1). An inmate advocacy group that’s been pushing for reforms praised the action it called a “step forward” and “great opportunity” to further bring down the costs of inmate phone calls. But a jail association said the fees have a useful purpose. The FNPRM circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler proposes to make permanent the FCC interim cap on interstate inmate calling rates, impose caps on intrastate rates, get rid of commissions paid to correctional facilities and cap such ancillary charges as transactions fees.
The FCC will explore making permanent the interim cap on interstate inmate calling rates the agency set last year, as well as imposing a new cap on intrastate rates, under a Further NPRM to be circulated Thursday, senior commission officials told us. They said the draft FNPRM tentatively concludes that inmate calling service (ICS) providers’ payments to correctional facilities should be banned. Providers and inmate groups have cited the payments as a significant factor in driving up rates.
A 30-day extension for data from inmate calling service providers was granted by the FCC Wireline Bureau in an order (http://bit.ly/1tIT6R9) posted in docket 12-375 and released in Monday’s Daily Digest. Petitions by CenturyLink, Global*Tel Link, Inmate Calling Solutions, Network Communications International Corp. and Telmate for 60- or 90-day extensions were denied because they would delay commission action, the order said. A shorter extension was granted, because of “the scope of the data request and our interest in obtaining accurate and complete responses,” the order said. The data now are due Aug. 18, the order said.