Week ahead: FCC to vote on prison phone call reforms

The Federal Communications Commission will vote to cap the price that phone companies can charge inmates to make a call. The order, which is expected to be approved, will likely lead to a decrease in phone charges for prison and jail inmates, whose calling costs tend to far exceed the rates paid by the general public. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission has worn the mantle of lowering prison call rates in recent years. She received a boost from more than a dozen Democratic Senators who endorsed the order, which includes a plan to discourage what Senators characterized as "kickbacks," money phone companies usually pay prisons to win exclusive phone service contracts. "Unfortunately, in many cases state prisons can receive a commission or 'kick-back' from contracts with phone service providers, thus incentivizing a regime in which prisons profit from charging inmates higher rates," the Senators wrote in a letter to the FCC.

Under the order, the majority of prison inmates would not be charged more than 11 cents per minute for any call, a more than 50 percent cut from the current cap on interstate calls. Other service charges would be capped as well. The FCC is also setting its sights on the commissions that prison phone companies generally fork over to prisons upfront. The order would not ban that practice but "strongly discourages" it, according to a fact sheet.