FCC allows prisons to charge more for phone and video calls

Telephones at the Eastern Women’s Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, Missouri, where incarcerated people pay a per-minute rate to talk to their loved ones. (Photo: Amanda Watford/Stateline)

Federal Communications Commission voted lifting limits on the fees companies can charge incarcerated people and their families for telephone and video calls.

A 2-1 vote in behind schedule October reverses the FCC’s interest rate caps adopted last year below 2023 law that allows the agency to set rate limits for phone and video calls in prisons. Critics say high rates are kept high by narrow competition between major providers such as Securus Technologies and ViaPath.

Under the fresh interim rulesphone calls will cost up to $0.11 per minute in gigantic prisons and $0.18 per minute in the smallest prisons. Video calls will cost up to $0.23 per minute in gigantic facilities and as much as $0.41 in tiny ones.

Only three states – Florida, Kentucky and Oklahoma – currently have rates higher than the fresh ones, which means most prison systems across the country are already below previously adopted maximum rates for 2024.

The fresh 2025 rates will become effective 120 days after publication in the Federal Register.

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In June, the FCC suddenly did just that announced two-year delay in implementing 2024 rate caps upon receipt complaints from local sheriffs and prison telecommunications companies. Republican attorneys general from 14 states also filed complaints lawsuit last year he questioned the commission’s authority to limit what prisons and jails can charge for phone calls, arguing that the rules deprive prisons of necessary funds.

Republican commissioners Brendan Carr and Olivia Trusty, both appointed by President Donald Trump, supported the rollback. Carr argued that previous restrictions narrow facilities’ ability to recover safety and security costs such as call monitoring, which led some to reduce or completely eliminate phone services. The trusts said the 2024 rules “did not always strike the right balance” and cited “unintended consequences” such as disruption to services in some settings.

At least one tiny prison – in Baxter County, Arkansas – ended telephone services earlier this year in protest against lower rate caps.

Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, an appointee of President Joe Biden, voted against the order and called it “indefensible.” She said the decision gives monopoly telecommunications providers “the power to increase the costs for families to maintain crucial contacts with loved ones in prison.”

Supporters of incarcerated people condemned the vote.

“These changes are a betrayal of the families who trust the FCC to protect them from the notoriously predatory telecommunications industry,” said Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises. press release. Worth Rises is a nonprofit organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry.

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Some tests suggests that incarcerated people who maintain regular contact with loved ones are much more likely to succeed after release and are less likely to re-offend.

The FCC’s latest decision came a few months after New York joined We offer California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Minnesota free telephone calls in state prisons. Colorado’s policy won’t go into effect until 2026.

At least two states – Maryland and Missouri — were considering legislation this year to make citations to jails and prisons more affordable. Maryland application making free calls in state prisons has not been legislated, but the state of Missouri has law in August, limiting telephone rates in correctional facilities to no more than 12 cents per minute.

Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at: ahernandez@stateline.org.