FCC Flooded with Comments Over Delay in Prison Phone Rate Caps

Nearly 1,000 public comments have poured into the Federal Communications Commission’s docket, protesting the agency’s decision to delay enforcement of rules designed to help incarcerated people connect with their loved ones. The outpouring comes in response to the FCC signaling on June 30 that it would delay enforcement of rules that were adopted in 2024 to lower the cost of phone and video calls from prisons until April 1, 2027. Congress directed the FCC to implement the rules in 2022; they supposedly took effect for larger prisons on January 1, 2025 and smaller jails on April 1. Hundreds of commenters submitted a coordinated message that “the FCC's sudden reversal of its position on regulations passed unanimously in 2024 [was] plainly shameful.” The message “urge[d] the FCC, under the leadership of Chairman Brendan Carr, to reconsider pausing the implementation of the new regulations on correctional communication services,” saying, “Families need relief now.” The FCC’s prison rate caps were put in place to make it more affordable for incarcerated people, some of whom earn as little as $1 per hour, to stay in touch with their families.