A coalition led by Public Knowledge filed a...
A coalition led by Public Knowledge filed a joint petition with the FCC to deny hedge fund ABRY Partners’ proposed buy of Securus, which provides phone services to prisons. The FCC should deny the proposed purchase because Securus’s business model…
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relies on charging “usurious” rates to prisoners’ families, with a single 10-minute call costing more than $20, the groups said in the petition (http://bit.ly/ZRz2a2). The other groups involved in the petition are Free Press, the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) Office of Communication and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. “Under the law, no one is entitled to buy a telephone provider unless the FCC finds the transaction will serve ’the public convenience and necessity,'” Public Knowledge said in a news release. “The organizations filing the Petition to Deny argue that because the [rates] charged by Securus are ‘unjust and unreasonable,’ the FCC must block the sale” (http://bit.ly/ZlTil7). Predatory prison phone rates are “a moral issue for the faith community -- these types of businesses should be stopped, not allowed to expand,” said Cheryl Leanza, policy adviser for UCC’s Office of Communication, in a statement. “Companies that invest in these predatory businesses risk endangering their public reputation.” Securus had no immediate comment.