WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a 2-1 vote, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved new rate caps for Incarcerated People’s Communication Services (IPCS), effectively undoing key 2024 reforms that had established fairer pricing for phone and video calls between incarcerated people and their families.
The rollback, passed over the objection of Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, will reduce financial relief for families by an estimated $215 million annually and allow providers to recapture surveillance costs, impose facility fees, and adjust rates for inflation.
“These changes are a betrayal of the families who entrusted the FCC to protect them from the notoriously predatory correctional telecom industry,” said Worth Rises Executive Director Bianca Tylek. She stated that the revised rules “bend to the will of the industry” and were “the result of manipulation by the industry and their government partners, who are determined to protect their unjust profit margins.”
Commissioner Gomez, the lone dissenting vote, denounced the decision as “indefensible,” noting that it transfers wealth from vulnerable families to monopolistic providers. She criticized the majority for claiming insufficient data to justify higher rates while still siding with the same companies that submitted the flawed data.
Worth Rises emphasized that the rollback disregards evidence showing that 76% of correctional systems already complied with the 2024 rate caps. The organization argued that this decision will harm roughly 450,000 incarcerated people and their families while restoring unjust profits to telecom providers and prison agencies.
“This rulemaking process has been hijacked by corporate interests,” said Tylek, vowing continued advocacy for fair and reasonable communication rates.
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