The FCC voted 2-1 along party lines Tuesday to increase rate caps for phone and video calls from people in jails and prisons nationwide. The new caps raise prices by as much as 83% and are estimated to cost American families an additional $215 million each year compared to rates unanimously adopted last year.
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 can cost as much as $500 per month. 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.
After decades of advocacy from family members and people of faith to lower the cost of prison phone calls, Congress passed the bipartisan Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. It requires the FCC to ensure “just and reasonable” charges for phone and video calls with people in jails and prisons.
In July 2024, the FCC unanimously adopted new rules that capped rates, eliminated “ancillary service” charges, and prohibited telecommunications companies from paying commissions to jail and prison operators in exchange for lucrative contracts. The new rules were projected to reduce the cost of a 15-minute phone call from a large jail from $11.35 to $0.90 and save impacted families at least $500 million annually.
But this summer, the FCC put those rates on hold, citing claims from phone companies and sheriffs that the rules made it unprofitable to serve certain very small jails and offer call monitoring technology. The Prison Policy Initiative points out that no published data supports those claims.
The new rules adopted this week increase the rate caps by as much as 83% for the nearly two million people who are currently incarcerated. At the last minute, the FCC also added a two cents per minute fee “to account for correctional facilities expenses.”
Worth Rises estimates that the new rate caps will cost families $215 million more each year over the 2024 rates.
This table does not include the $0.02 per minute additive announced on Tuesday. (UCC Media Justice)
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez voted against the increase and called it “indefensible.”
“Today, the Commission adopts an order that gives monopoly companies facing zero competition, the authority to increase the costs for families to maintain critical connections with their loved ones in prison,” she said Tuesday.
“These families have no option but to pay the higher rates, regardless of whether they have enough to make rent, buy groceries or pay the electric bill, or whether they are able to work enough hours or need to get a third job if they want to stay in touch with a loved one in a correctional facility—their cousin, friend, brother, mother. They have no other option but to figure out how to pay the higher rates the commission imposes on them today.”
The FCC’s retreat undermines the purpose of this regulation—increasing communication between incarcerated people and their loved ones. “The 2024 rules were projected to generate nearly two billion additional call minutes every year, strengthening family bonds and public safety alike,” Worth Rises reports. “The new proposal slashes that figure by a staggering 66%.”
Six states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York—currently cover the cost of calls from prison. When Massachusetts implemented its policy, calls more than doubled; New York’s Department of Corrections reported a 45% increase in phone minutes in the first month after its free phone call policy went into effect.