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

Re:Internet calls cost 0.001 cent per hour

[Archangel Michael]

So, what you're saying is that for 8 years, a black president did nothing and now you're blaming the new guy because it fits your particular political view.

Too many people in prisons in the first place

[roman_mir]

USA has too many prisoners in the first place. Everything is a crime and if something is not a crime that's temporary. Shutting down the DEA would get rid of what, over half of the prison population at least?

Of-course this goes against the profit motive of the well politically connected prison industrial complex, so that's another problem in itself - the government passing the laws that put people to prisons and then handing out contracts to private corporations to keep those people there. There is a profit motive here and it starts with the politicians. Of-course the opposite of prisons would be freedom and liberty and we can't have that in the United States of America.

Freedom and liberty to do with your body as you wish, freedom and liberty to sell any product that people desire to purchase. Freedom and liberty not to be locked up for either using or selling any substances.

How about only locking people up for violence against other people? How about private prisons *NOT* getting government contracts?

AFAIC there shouldn't be any public police or public roads or public education or public health care or public courts, everything should be private. Everything should be paid with use fees and insurance payouts, not with any taxes. There shouldn't be income and wealth taxes, there shouldn't be anything that can allow the public to place people into prisons. All matters are private, event the most violent once.

At that point the question of the phone call pricing is no longer in the hands of any public authority / government, it is a private question. The size of the prisoner population is no longer in the hands of any public authority / government, it's private. You get robbed, beaten up, murdered, your insurance has to pay out, it can use the money to investigate and to place the offender behind bars of a private prison after going through a private court room.

Why would insurance do that? Because it needs to reduce the number of robberies, beatings, murders so that the number of payouts goes down.

Re:Doesn't that present an obvious solution?

[Archangel Michael]

Two things. One, I am pretty sure that someone somewhere has figured this out before. People in prison aren't usually stupid. Dumb maybe, but not Stupid. Two, once something is known in Prison, it is usually passed around like a cheap hooker at a bachelor party.

In fact, I bet that cheap hooker knows all about Google Voice! ;)