Private Prisons

Families to Benefit From New Cap on Prison Phone Rates. The highest communication authority in the U.S. voted Thursday to cap expensive phone calls to and from prisons and jails nationwide.
Every Tuesday, Devin D. Coleman looked forward to his weekly call with his grandma. Their phone date was special not just because he loved her but because Coleman was in prison, and every call to a family member helped keep him grounded and reminded him there was a life waiting for him after he served his sentence.

“She passed away before I was released,” Coleman told TakePart. “I wish I could’ve talked to her more, but due to the price of calls, I couldn’t. For me, it was vital to be able to talk to my family.”

Like many people who have served time behind bars, Coleman intimately understands how the high cost of calls made to and from prison can inhibit a family’s ability to stay in touch. But a vote on Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission that sets a lower cap on the price of prison phone calls will ease that burden. The ruling will go into effect in early 2016.

The historic vote marks a major victory for incarcerated people and the advocates who have fought alongside them to stem the high costs of prison phone calls charged by companies such as Global Tel Link and Securus Technologies for the last decade. The decision sets a $1.65 cap on the vast majority of 15-minute calls to and from inmates—calls that used to cost as much as $2.96 for intrastate calls and $3.15 for out-of-state conversations, based on a 2013 ruling.

“Reducing the cost of these calls measurably increases the amount of contact between inmates and their loved ones, making an important contribution to the criminal justice reforms sweeping the nation,” the commission said in a statement released after Thursday’s vote.

Studies have shown that affordable phone calls help inmates succeed after their release by enabling them to maintain connections to their families and communities.

In its statement, the commission also announced it is seeking comments on how to curb the costs of video visitation services in prisons, which have risen in popularity and in some cases replaced in-person visits.

When the news about the FCC’s decision broke, Coleman said he almost cried. He has been working on reducing prison phone call rates as an organizer with the New Florida Majority, a grassroots social justice organization, since 2012.

“I have a friend who’s incarcerated right now, and it’s tough for him to call home because of the cost,” Coleman said. “Now I can tell his sister and mom the cost is going down. It’ll be a glimmer of hope for a lot of families and will have an immediate impact on the relationships and bonds that can be rebuilt.”

There are families who have to pay up to $3,000 per year just to keep in touch with their family members in prison.

Why? So corporations running prison phone lines can make a buck.

These corporations -- including Global Tech-Link Corp and Securus Technologies -- win lucrative contracts to provide phone services for inmates by promising kickbacks to local and state authorities. Then they pass the cost on to families and inmates, who have to pay up to $12.95 for a 15 minute call.

That’s over 20 times the cost of a local phone call.


In just a few days, the FCC is making a landmark decision to regulate prices. If we don’t want corporations to keep charging exorbitant rates for a phone calls, we need to act now.

Sign the petition calling on the FCC to place caps on the amount prison contractors can charge families and inmates to keep in touch.

Prisons are meant to serve the public -- not corporations looking to profit off of some of the most vulnerable people in society. Research shows that inmates are more likely to successfully integrate back into their communities if they stay in touch with their families while serving their time. So why are corporations trying to make it more difficult?

By making it harder for inmates to stay in touch with families -- who are mostly poor and of color -- they are putting vulnerable communities at risk by placing obstacles to the rehabilitation of these inmates.

Private prison corporations have been trying to do everything they can to profit off off incarceration for too long. SumOfUs members across the country have been key to fighting to regulate the industry for years, and together, we’re holding corporations to account. Let’s come together now and remind the FCC that even people behind bars are human beings, and force them to regulate prison phone calls once and for all.

Sign the petition to call on the FCC to regulate this multi-billion dollar business that is based on exploiting families and inmates.

In days the FCC could start regulating the private prison phone industry and stop corporations from charging families and inmates 20 times the cost of a regular phone call.

Can you tell the FCC to regulate this predatory industry once and for all?

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More information:
The High Cost of Calling the Imprisoned, The New York Times, March 30, 2015
Rates and Kickbacks, PrisonPhoneJustice.org