The National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), in a recent FCC filing for Docket No. 12-375 (Inmate Calling Services), made the case that jails should be compensated for the costs they incur to allow inmate calling service (ICS). The FCC, in its Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SFNPRM), proposed the elimination of the payment of site commissions as a category to correctional facilities, including jails. On January 12, 2015, NSA’s submitted a cost survey to the […]
rates
The FCC has released its order (FCC 13-113) detailing the rules associated with the regulating of prison payphone interstate calling rates. This is the culmination of FCC Proposed Rule Making 12-375 (The Wright Petition – follow the link for to see the new proposed rates) in which the Federal Communications Commission proposed to lower rates charged to prison inmates for long distance telephone calls by considering changes to its regulations governing rates for interstate inter-exchange […]
The first round of comments are in for the FCC Proposed Rule Making 12-375 (The Wright Petition), and advocates from both sides of the issue have submitted letters and comments on the price of interstate calls from prison. Some cash-strapped states and facilities collect commissions from prison phone contracts. Texas, for instance, uses some of the money collected for a crime victims’ fund. Nationwide, states collect more than $150 million a year from prison phone […]
A bipartisan group of prison reformers is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to stop phone companies from charging inmates what they call unreasonable and predatory rates to make phone calls. The letter is signed by conservative leaders such as Gary Bauer and David Keene, as well as civil rights groups such as The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Organization for Women. […]