Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced on June 30 that the agency has postponed enforcement of new rules designed to reduce the exorbitant cost of phone and video calls for loved ones of people in prisons and jails.
Research shows that staying in touch with loved ones who are 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.
But many families struggle with the high cost of phone calls and video visits, which are especially critical for people 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.
Family members, people of faith, and advocates have worked for decades to lower the cost of prison phone calls. Despite opposition from private prison telecom companies, Congress passed the bipartisan Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, named for an early leader of the effort to reduce unconscionably high phone rates.
In accordance with the law’s requirement that it ensure “just and reasonable” charges for phone and video calls with people in jails and prisons, the FCC unanimously adopted new rules in July 2024 that cap rates, eliminate “ancillary service” charges, and prohibit telecommunications companies from paying commissions or kickbacks to jail and prison operators in exchange for lucrative contracts.
As much as 50% of the money that incarcerated people and their families spend on phone and video calls is paid in kickbacks to the government or private corporation (such as GEO Group and CoreCivic) that operates the facility, according to reports. Kickbacks drive up rates and fees for families because prison operators award contracts to telecom companies that charge higher rates and, in turn, pay higher commissions. Banning kickbacks is one way the 2024 rules reduce rates and fees for incarcerated people and their loved ones.
Under the FCC’s 2024 order, the cost for a 15-minute phone call from a large jail was expected to drop from $11.35 to $0.90. The annual savings for impacted families was estimated to be at least $500 million.
The 2024 rules were implemented on a staggered basis starting on January 1. But now the FCC says it will delay enforcement of the rules until April 1, 2027—if at all, since the agency could permanently change them in the meantime.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez decried the agency’s “indefensible decision to ignore both the law and the will of Congress.” She argued the suspension violates the Martha Wright-Reed Act, which directed the FCC to “implement the statutory provisions not earlier than 18 months and not later than 24 months after the date of its enactment.”
Rather than enforce the law, the FCC is “shielding a broken system that inflates costs and rewards kickbacks to correctional facilities at the expense of incarcerated individuals and their loved ones,” she said in a statement.
In its order delaying enforcement of the 2024 rules, the FCC pointed to “financial burdens” for jail and prison operators resulting from the ban on kickbacks and claimed the new rules could lead some facilities to eliminate phone access and could threaten public safety by preventing call monitoring. These claims echo arguments made by telecom companies and Republican attorneys general who sued in October to block implementation of the new rules.
In April, attorneys general for the District of Columbia, New York, California, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, and Rhode Island filed an amicus brief refuting those contentions.
Based on their extensive experience operating correctional facilities covered by the 2024 rules and negotiating with providers over phone rates charged in those facilities, these states asserted, “[T]here is no reason to believe that the 2024 Order’s rate caps will jeopardize public or correctional-facility safety or lead to a reduction in the availability of calling services for incarcerated individuals.”
Five states—Connecticut, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Massachusetts—have made phone calls free, the attorneys general wrote, and other states have lowered their rates far below the caps set in 2024—without sacrificing safety or service availability.
In fact, “[t]hese States have all seen significant benefits from the elimination or reduction of rates, including increased family reunification for incarcerated individuals upon release,” the brief states. “Rate reductions have also led to facility safety benefits, like curtailing illicit cell phone use by incarcerated people and keeping incarcerated individuals meaningfully engaged with their communities.”
Despite evidence that the new rules would improve public and facility safety without jeopardizing availability of services, the FCC’s order reiterates claims made by opponents of the rate reductions and relies on assertions from the private corporations that have been fighting FCC attempts to reduce these costs for more than a decade.
Companies like Securus Technologies (one of two companies that control about 80% of the prison telecom industry) managed to stall the FCC’s 2013 decision to lower the cost of prison phone calls until the Trump administration appointed a new FCC chairman and the agency reversed its position.
After the FCC adopted new rules in 2024, the private prison industry reportedly contributed millions to Donald Trump’s campaign. One of the largest private prison companies, GEO Group, was the first corporation to make the maximum contribution to the Trump campaign; it later donated $1 million to Make America Great Again PAC through a subsidiary, according to reports. GEO Group and CoreCivic each donated half a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration committee.
Now, less than six months into the second Trump administration, the FCC has again retreated from its commitment to cap exorbitant phone and video call rates incarcerated people and their families.
Hundreds of public comments have flooded the FCC protesting the agency’s decision and calling it “plainly shameful.”