Phone call charges for those incarcerated in US prisons have skyrocketed over the past three years – with the industry costing families nearly $1 billion a year – according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a group of reflection.
But that could soon change, as legislation awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature will allow the Federal Communications Commission to cap the price of certain prison phone calls.
Titled the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, the bill, which passed with bipartisan support in the House and Senate last week, will allow the price of inmate phone calls to be regulated by the FCC.
The legislation is named after Martha Wright-Reed, who originally filed a petition with the FCC to lower the price of prison phone calls to stay in touch with her incarcerated grandson.
“She knew then what we all know now. For those incarcerated and their loved ones, talking is not cheap,” FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel previously said in a statement. “Prisoners are often separated from their families by hundreds of miles, and families may lack the time and means to make regular visits. Calls from payphones are therefore the only way to stay in touch.”
“But the price for individual calls can be as high as the price many of us pay for unlimited monthly plans,” Rosenworcel said. “This makes it difficult for prisoners’ families to keep in touch. It’s not just a strain on household budgets. It’s a cruel strain on the millions of families and children of incarcerated people – and it’s us harms everyone because skin contact can reduce recurrence.
Rosenworcel said the FCC should be “embarrassed” and “that it’s taken us so long to resolve this issue is particularly shameful,” but she welcomed ongoing efforts to change calling regulations.
According to the Prison Phone Justice group, prison phone call rates operate on a “bribe” system, in which a company will be contracted by a state agency to facilitate the call and that agency State will then receive a portion of the telephone charges.
An inmate uses a phone from a cell at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, California on August 28, 2018. 16, 2016.
Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
The White House has yet to say whether Biden will sign the bill.
Kentucky has the highest cost of a 15-minute intrastate phone call, at $5.70 total, according to Jail Phone Justice. For comparison, the cheapest state to make a 15-minute intrastate phone call is New Hampshire, with the cost being only 20 cents total.
In 2017, a federal court struck down the FCC’s cap on phone calls between prisons, resulting in much higher costs for inmates making calls within the state.
However, interstate phone calls remain capped at 25 cents per minute, according to the ruling.
Phone call charges are not paid by inmates but by their families and, due to the 2017 court ruling, the FCC could not regulate the prison phone call industry on its own, except by a law of the Congress.
Prisons and jails have been charging predatory prices on people who have been incarcerated for far too long. Today’s action gives the Commission the power to act to ensure that the rates charged to inmates are just and reasonable, regardless of the phone technology used to make the call or whether the appeal crosses state lines,” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said in a statement last week. “I hope the Commission will move quickly to implement the rulemaking as required status shortly after President Biden signs the legislation.”
The bill has been backed by law enforcement and prisoners’ rights advocates.
“No family member should ever have to choose between staying in touch with an incarcerated loved one and paying the bills,” the Illinois senator said. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat, said Last week. “We must do all we can to ensure that telephone rates in correctional facilities are fair and reasonable so that family members can afford to stay in touch with loved ones not incarcerated, thereby improving the chances that rehabilitated offenders can become productive members of society upon their release.”
Duckworth introduced the bill with the retired Republican senator. Rob Portman of Ohio, who said “shockingly high prison phone call rates create an often insurmountable barrier between inmates and their families.”
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