NEW YORK — Worth Rises, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it targets,” has criticized the Federal Communications Commission for delaying implementation of new rules capping phone rates for incarcerated individuals.
“This delay is a blatant handout to correctional telecom corporations and their profit-sharing government partners, who are both angry that the free-for-all is over,” said Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises. “Every day that the rules are not implemented is another day that corporations and their correctional partners are extorting families over the essential need to stay connected to their loved ones behind bars.”
According to the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, the law amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require the FCC to ensure fair rates for any audio or video communications service used by incarcerated individuals to communicate with people outside the facility, regardless of the technology used.
Worth Rises stated that in July 2024, the FCC issued a 430-page order, passed by unanimous vote, to cap call rates and bring relief to millions of families affected by incarceration.
The Prison Policy Initiative noted that, prior to the order, prison telecom companies offered call monitoring services that were improperly paid for through inflated consumer rates.
“Correctional telecom providers, including industry giants Securus and ViaPath, and correctional officials, who all stand to lose when the new rules are implemented, have been lobbying FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr since his appointment for a delay and reversal of the rules. Notably, Carr voted in favor of the rules last year,” Worth Rises added.
Last week, Worth Rises confirmed that Carr’s office announced the implementation of most of the new regulations was suspended until April 2027, delaying relief for some families by more than two years.
In response, Cameron Marx of Broadband Breakfast reported that Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez accused the FCC of ignoring both the law and Congress’s intent. “Rather than enforce the law, the Commission is now stalling, shielding a broken system that inflates costs and rewards kickbacks to correctional facilities at the expense of incarcerated individuals and their loved ones,” Gomez said.
Worth Rises emphasized that one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt trying to stay connected, and 87 percent of those burdened are women, primarily women of color.
“For decades, the egregious prices charged for basic communication services have been driven at least in part by profit-sharing contracts between correctional telecom providers and correctional agencies, with facilities taking as much as 95 percent of call revenues in kickbacks,” said Worth Rises.
The organization also noted that some correctional agencies and local officials are threatening to restrict access to calls altogether unless they regain access to these revenue streams.
Backing up these claims, Jon Brodkin of Ars Technica reported that price caps have angered prison phone providers and jail operators who financially benefit from telco contracts. One Arkansas jail reportedly ended phone service rather than comply with the rate limits.
“The FCC’s 2024 order was a major step toward ending the insidious profit-sharing relationship between correctional telecom providers and correctional agencies that exacerbates the exploitation of incarcerated people and their families,” said Tylek. “But with its recent action, the FCC has shifted to rewarding it instead — throwing the needs of families and public safety, which rely on access to communication inside, to the wayside.”
