FCC Can't Cap the Cost of Cross-State Prison Phone Calls, Court Rules (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to cap the cost of prison and jail phone calls within states, an appeals court ruled in a decision today, dealing a massive blow to inmates and their advocates who have spent years litigating caps on the cost of such calls. Over several years, the FCC, under Democratic leadership, moved to cap the cost of calls for inmates. Activists argued that prisoners were effectively being extorted by private companies charging exorbitant rates -- a move that benefited private prisons and the states that got cuts of the revenue. Some of those states joined with companies in appealing the FCC's rules. The agency first moved to cap rates across state lines, and then, later, within states. Today, the court ruled that the FCC had overstepped when it attempted to regulate the price of calls within states. In the majority opinion, the court left little wiggle room for advocates of price-capping, with the possible exception of the cross-state caps, which are a minority of calls made by inmates. The opinion vacated not only the agency's proposed caps for in-state calls, but said the agency also lacked justification to require reports on video calling services. It also vacated a provision that would ban site commission payments.

Comments

Doesn't that present an obvious solution?

[Solandri]

In the majority opinion, the court left little wiggle room for advocates of price-capping, with the possible exception of the cross-state caps, which are a minority of calls made by inmates.

So any lawyer working with inmates in a certain state just needs to get a virtual phone number in another state, and have it forward to his regular phone number.

Re:Doesn't that present an obvious solution?

[Ichijo]

This is why prisons should be penalized for each ex-inmate who recividates. Let's put the profit motive to work for the benefit of everyone and not just the prisons themselves.

Re:Doesn't that present an obvious solution?

[Khyber]

"Many states, including California, ship inmates to out of state prisons, where it hard for their families to visit"

A bunch of inmates from either Michigan or Wisconsin sued for that exact practice and won claiming unlawful estrangement.

I bet such a thing could be tried against the prison phone companies.

Re:Doesn't that present an obvious solution?

[hey!]

I assume your tech-idiot mother is functionally literate. Now take that away from her and see if she can manage on her own.

The usual standard for "functional literacy" -- being sufficiently capable at reading and writing to be a competent adult -- is eighth grade level proficiency. 21% of Americans read at a fourth grade level or lower. And when you look at prisoners, the number of read at below the fifth grade level is a staggering 70%.

Add to that that illiteracy tends to run in families, and yes, I'd say that going on the web and following the directions for setting up a google voice number is a challenge for many of these people -- much less reading the terms of service.

Re:Amazing. Your system actually works.

[schwit1]

This is a power grab. Not everything is a federal issue. We have unelected federal bureaucrats telling a state what it can and can't do inside the state. What the state is doing is unethical, but it's not the FCC's place to regulate. This should be handled by state civil right groups, state regulators and state courts.