Updates

FCC Reduces Rates for Prison Phone Calls, Prohibits Charging Families for Surveillance

July 18, 2024

Today the Federal Communications Commission voted to enact regulations implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act. The new rules effectively halve the cost of phone and video calls to jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers. Incarcerated people, their friends, and families will save more than $500 million per year.

Based on comments from EPIC and other advocates, the Commission adopted recommendations to: only charge inmates and their families for services that are “used and useful” to them, prohibit site commissions (kickbacks to jails that raise the cost of calls), cap the maximum allowable charges for voice and video calls, and guarantee free Telecommunications Relay Services for persons with disabilities.

This is a victory for consumers as it reduces costs, simplifies pricing, requires greater disclosures to consumers about their full options for paying for services, and strengthens accessibility requirements for incarcerated people with disabilities. Importantly, it also prohibits prison phone providers from charging inmates and their loved ones for the cost of their own surveillance, including biometric surveillance, as these represent discretionary needs of the facility and are not “used and useful” to the consumer making the phone or video call.

The Martha Wright-Reed Act was inspired by a grandmother who spent hundreds of dollars every month in phone calls to stay in touch with her incarcerated grandson, and who for more than two decades petitioned the FCC and Congress for relief from exorbitantly high charges. The process is not finished, in a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking the FCC inquires about making permanent the Commission’s interim rate caps for video, addressing quality of service issues such as dropped calls or frozen video screens, and expanding the definitions of prisons and jails to include other detention facilities such as civil commitment, residential, group and nursing facilities.

EPIC advocates for stronger consumer protection safeguards in the prison communications context, including the data security of callers.

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