Posted on 10/21/2015 4:32:08 PM PDT by markomalley
Are inmates in state and federal prisons charged too much to make a phone call? The Federal Communications Commission thinks they are.
On Oct. 22, the telecommunications regulator is expected to impose strict new caps on how much convicts can be charged for making phone calls from the big house. In so doing, the agency will (once again) be overstepping its bounds, overriding policy decisions set by those who actually run the prisons.
There is little doubt that making a phone call from prison can be expensive, with per minute rates of up to 89 cents, according to the FCC, not counting various per call fees that can be tacked on.
Thus, a fifteen minute phone call could cost over $13, compared to less than a dollar on the outside.
A Lack of Competition
The FCC blames the cost on a lack of competition, a fact that is blindingly obvious. Inmates are the ultimate captive customers, and competition is kept away by literal barriers to entry. But the gatekeepers in this marketplace are not the phone companies – it is the corrections officials themselves.
Prison authorities typically grant exclusive licenses to specialized firms that manage phone systems for correctional facilities. A big share of the revenue – as much as 96 percent — then goes back to the prisons, through fees due from these firms. In part, this money helps to offset the security costs to wardens of providing phone calls to inmates, ranging from call monitoring to providing escorts for repairmen. Much, however, is typically used to fund general prison operations and programs.
Prisoner rights activists have long denounced this system. By treating inmate phone calls as a cash cow, prisoners are discouraged from staying in contact with friends and family in the outside world. The resulting isolation, they argue, makes it harder for them to integrate into society when they are released.
FCC Regulations Are Not a Solution
Finding this argument persuasive, the FCC imposed interim caps on interstate phone rates in 2013. On Thursday, permanent – and broader – regulations will be voted on.
The new rules will apply to in-state as well as interstate calls, and lower the average cost of a 15-minute call to $1.65. The costs of this reduction, however, will be borne by the prison system, and ultimately the taxpayers, who will have fewer resources for other priorities.
This issue involves the sort of trade-off weighed every day by policymakers in deciding how to use the resources at their disposal. But in this case, the decision is not being made by those responsible for running prisons or ensuring that ex-convicts are successfully and safely re-integrated into society. Nor is it being made by legislators accountable to the people.
Instead, the decision is being made by the unelected members of the FCC, an agency with no expertise – or accountability – for prison management.
The regulators at the FCC have a disturbing habit of expanding their own jurisdiction (having asserted regulatory control over the Internet only this February).
That expansion should be stopped outside the prison walls.
Nationalization ....
That way they can “look out for us cause they love us soooooooooooo much” /SSSSSS
Mega sarcasm alert
We can reduce their costs to zero by banning phone calls.
If criminals wish to communicate, they can write a letter.
The government forces rates up so the government can step in and make us pay for inmates’ phone calls too.
It is obvious the felons in our prisons are a major voting bloc for the Democrats..
Last week the Bureau of Prisons decreed no more pork.
Now they are concerned about the phone charges.
Has Obama overlooked giving all the felons an Obamaphone?
Why not monitored Skype? This saves the relatives of prisoners time and money from going to see the scumbag, and it cuts out the FCC. In fact, I think prison phone calls should be done away entirely, and replaced by Skype or secured email or text system.
I may be in the minority on this issue but I think this is another example of profiteering on those that can least afford it. In my opinion this is as bad as unreasonable probation fees. People don’t deserve to be punished forever.
Only after paying for the paper.
An additional positive is that they'd be forced to learn how to read and write.
Make the inmates pay money to occupy the room in which the phone is located.
I think that depends on the crime.
The Big Dope Smoker In The Soiled White House Feels Their Pain
It’s difficult to make any decent money selling dope in the pen when it costs so much to talk to your growers and middle men.
Fine. No more phonecalls. Contract out with Western Union and provide Telegram Service.
Of course, it’s not the inmate paying for the calls, it’s the family. This is a rip off of innocent families by the government, pure and simple.
There is also a “small” fee added to every phone bill to help pay for something...
I am sure it is a government give away to a newly identified and of Course under served victim class...
Suffering from ...Lacakafreephonitis, first identified as a malady by Barkys minions who are merely doing it (free phones) so we can all feel better and start texting again...
As to inmates, they are really buttering up that bread as it means long term $$ for watching the Animals. Think we are not included, see the article posted here about Christian and other internal terrorists. There are, YES, many who would agree with them as it is “inconvenient” to use my brain for something so.... base
most of the rational states do not allow felons to vote.
Somebody has to pay for the expense of providing those phone calls. If you think requiring the prisoners to pay the costs is excessive punishment, who do you think that punishment should be passed off to?
Thank you. This also impacts the families of the inmates who often are the ones paying the fees.
Western Union stopped sending telegrams in 2006.
You could easily correct the problems by reducing regulations (massively) and leave it to the marketplace.
You've obviously never worked in Corrections. Prisons can have hundreds of phones. You can't monitor that kind volume. A lot of prisoner families don't have an internet connection. Can you imagine all the porn shots that would go on? Prisoners would be able to see all kinds of prohibited items, such as maps and diagrams for making weapons and escape implements. And there are prisoners who could hack the internet connection, allowing them to access sites they would never be allowed to otherwise. There are any number of reasons Skype would never work.
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