Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and 13 other Republican attorneys general filed a petition last week asking a federal court to block new rules that reduce the cost of phone and video calls with people in prisons and jails.
In July, the Federal Communications Commission announced new rules that cap rates for intrastate phone calls, address the exorbitant cost of video visitation calls, and lower existing per-minute rate caps for out-of-state and international calls.
A 15-minute phone call from a large jail costs as much as $11.35 and is even higher in small jails, at $12.10. Under the new rules, that rate will drop to $0.90 and $1.35 in large and small jails, respectively.
The FCC said existing per-minute rate caps for voice calls will be cut by more than half for the overwhelming majority of consumers. The new per-minute rates, which go into effect next year, range from $0.06 per minute for prisons and large jails to $0.12 for very small jails, and as low as $0.11 per minute for video calls, which FCC will be less than a quarter of current rates.
The new rules also reduce what consumers pay by eliminating separate “ancillary service” charges, and they prohibit telecommunications companies from paying commissions or kick-backs to jails and prisons.
Research shows that maintaining contact with loved ones while incarcerated increases safety in prisons and jails, promotes positive mental health, and has long-term benefits that include lower risks of reoffending and an increased likelihood of successful re-entry. Studies have also emphasized the importance for children to stay in touch when a parent is incarcerated.
But many families struggle with the high cost of phone calls and video visits, which are especially critical for people held in prisons or jails that have eliminated in-person visits or who are incarcerated far away from their families. Staying connected can cost families as much as $500 per month, and more than one in three families reported going into debt or going without food, medical care, and other basic needs to stay in touch with their loved ones.
Wendy Henderson told AL.com that it has become “very expensive” for her to talk to her brother, who has been incarcerated in Alabama for more than 11 years. She said she’s lucky to be able to stay in touch with her brother—unlike many families who cannot afford phone calls with their loved ones. “It’s just sad,” she said. “We need that connection with them.”
Worth Rises estimates the new FCC rules will save impacted families at least $500 million annually.
Alabama and the other states opposing the new rules have argued that cutting costs for families will reduce revenues for prisons and jails, AL.com reports. Their petition, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, claims the rules improperly cap how much facilities can charge for calls.
The private corporations that profit from charging for phone and video calls have been fighting FCC attempts to reduce these costs for more than a decade.
In 2013, advocates, people of faith, and relatives of incarcerated people persuaded the FCC to lower the cost of prison phone calls, but companies like Securus Technologies (one of two companies that control about 80% of the prison telecom industry) challenged the regulations in court. In 2017, after the Trump Administration appointed a new FCC chairman, the FCC reversed its position.
Advocates did not give up, and on January 5, 2023, the bipartisan Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022 was signed into law. The legislation requires the FCC to ensure just and reasonable charges for “any audio or video communications service used by inmates for the purpose of communicating with individuals outside the correctional institution where the inmate is held, regardless of technology used.”
The new FCC rules implement the act, named for the late Martha Wright-Reed, who filed a petition 20 years ago calling on the FCC to reduce the unconscionable rates she and other family members were forced to pay to stay in contact with their loved ones.
In response to the states’ lawsuit, an FCC spokesperson told Reuters that “the moral and legal authority to stop these predatory rates that harm families and increase recidivism is on the side of the FCC’s bipartisan action.”
Meanwhile, as Alabama and other states fight cutting costs for millions of American families, more states are following the example set by Connecticut, which in 2021 became the first state to make phone calls from prisons free for incarcerated people and their loved ones.