Families with incarcerated members can face paying as much as $2.40 a minute and $17 for a 15-minute call to their loved ones. But now Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to cap the rates for all types of phone calls made to prisons to make them “just, reasonable, and fair,” including local, long-distance, and international calls.
The commission has already capped how much phone companies can charge per minute for people calling prisons across state boundaries. In a fact sheet released on Thursday, Wheeler proposes caps that ensure a 15-minute call costs no more than $1.65 when made to prisons both within a state or between states. The caps would be tiered so that state and federal prisons have the lowest rate, while smaller jails can go higher: 11 cents a minute for calls to prisons, 14 cents a minute for the largest jails, 16 cents a minute for jails with 350–999 inmates, and 22 cents a minute for jails smaller than that. Except for the rate for the smallest jails, all of the rates are “substantially lower,” the fact sheet points out, than the current 21 cents a minute cap on interstate calls. Advocates have pushed for an even bigger decrease, however, asking the commission to impose a flat rate of 7 cents a minute for all calls.
The FCC would also ban providers from charge a flat rate for calls up to 15 minutes long regardless of how long an inmate is actually on the phone. The memo also proposes banning or limiting some fees callers face: All ancillary service charges would be prohibited except for automated payment charges up to $3, payments through a live agent up to $5.95, and paper bill fees up to $2.
None of the changes would go into effect unless passed by the commission at its October 22 open meeting, and would be phased in 90 days later.
But they would mean significant relief for the families of those behind bars. More than a third of families with a loved one in prison have to go into debt to pay for phone calls and visits, adding to the overall financial burden of incarceration that two-thirds of families say interferes with affording their basic needs like food and housing.
Exorbitant phone costs have cropped up thanks to a previously largely unregulated industry that acts as a monopoly. As of 2012, 90 percent of incarcerated people were in a state that has an exclusive phone service agreement with one of just three companies: Global Tel*Link, Securus Technologies, or CenturyLink. The largest is Global Tel*Link, which has contracts with 27 state correctional departments that contain approximately 57 percent of the incarcerated population. It’s a more than billion-dollar industry.
The monopolies arise thanks to unique features of the market. In all but nine states, the bidding process for these companies to get contracts includes a promise that they will pay so-called “commissions,” which gives states incentives to pick those who offer the highest kickback, not the lowest rates. Fourteen service providers made $460 million in these payments in 2013. They’re so lucrative that the National Sheriffs’ Association has claimed it might not be able to afford to give prisoners phone call rights if commissions are ended.
Meanwhile, the consumers of the phone companies’ services, the families of the incarcerated, have no choice about what telephone system to use, as they have to make calls with whatever provider their state prison system selects.
Nine states have have ended the commission structure that led to kickbacks to private companies, and the cost of 15-minute phone calls in those states has dropped to as low as 66 cents. The FCC has also considered banning these payments to rein in phone rates. And some states, including Alabama, Minnesota, and New Jersey, have already lowered phone rates on their own.
Cheaper calls wouldn’t just ease a financial burden on families, but it could also have a positive impact on inmates. Studies have found a consistent association between steady family contact while people are incarcerated and lower recidivism rates when they get out.