Service Providers Celebrate As Courts Strike Cost Cap For Prison Calls

Although conceding the “extraordinarily high” charges of and lacking competition among prison call contractors, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission overstepped its bounds in capping rates for in-state inmate calls.

While free to regulate interstate call costs, the FCC is mandated merely to ensure fair compensation for in-state services, according to the majority.

Centurylink Inc CTL, a prison phone servicer, praised the court’s “correct ruling,” while competitor Global Tel Link told the Associated Press it is “committed to market-based reforms that result in lower rates” but still “account for the true costs” of facilitating prison calls.

The court’s dissenting judge offered different perspective.

“I cannot agree that a company is ‘fairly compensated’ … when it charges inmates exorbitant prices to use payphones inside prisons and jails, shielded from competition by a contract granting it a facility-wide payphone monopoly,” Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard wrote.

The Price Of Contact

Some locations charge upwards of $14 per minute, rendering a five-minute chat worth a day of labor and all but inaccessible to low-income families.

A 2015 report by The Washington Post revealed annual family expenses between $1,000 and $2,000, with one inmate’s mother allocating 20 percent of her income to prison calls.

The Long Fight

Tuesday’s ruling stalled a four-year push to limit burdensome costs.

The FCC voted in 2013 to cap interstate rates, a ruling that remains in effect.

In 2015, it voted to cap state and federal charges at 11 cents per minute, with jail calls between 14 cents and 22 cents. It was the latter ruling that the appeals court overturned Tuesday, prompted by Global Tel Link and Securus Technologies lawsuits in 2016. Commission attorneys advised the appeals court in February that the FCC was dropping its defense of the ruling, marking a notable sentiment shift with the rise of Chairman Ajit Pai, a known cap-opponent.

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