Wheeler Says Inmate Calling Rates Are a ‘Top Priority’; Clyburn Hopes for Action This Year
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, echoed by what would make up a majority of commissioners, said Wednesday that bringing down inmate phone rates is a “top priority.” He backed making the agency’s 2013 interim interstate rates permanent and dealing with “unreasonably high” intrastate rates, and said additional charges that are tacked on to phone charges “need to be addressed if not attacked.” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, whom Wheeler called the “North Star” on the issue for the commission, told us she’s hopeful for action sometime this year. Whether the permanent cap would be the same as the interim ones, of 21 cents per minute for debit and prepaid calls and 25 cents a minute for collect calls (CD Aug 12 p1), has not been decided, an FCC spokesman said.
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Although the interim cap has had an impact, with some providers telling Clyburn inmate call volumes have increased by as much as 30 percent, she said at a workshop at the commission meeting room, the FCC has “more work to do.” She also mentioned making the interim rate caps permanent, dealing with the ancillary charges and exploring setting “a ceiling or default” on intrastate calls, if states don’t address prices. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also backed reforms, saying: “Justice, though delayed, won’t be denied.” Addressing what had been “egregious” rates is key in lowering a national recidivism rate, in which 77 percent of those incarcerated were rearrested in five years, according to Department of Justice statistics, Clyburn said. The contact inmates have with friends and family is important to their ability to reintegrate into society, she said.
While well intentioned, the FCC reforms haven’t made “much of an impact,” said Darrell Baker, director of the Utility Services Division for the Alabama Public Service Commission. Providers of phone service for inmates have responded to the interstate interim rate caps by increasing intrastate rates or adding charges, he said. “They're charging less in one area and more in another.” Baker said in-state rates and ancillary rates need to be addressed. Because of the increase in local rates, some prisoners have gotten out-of-state numbers for their in-state friends and family to save money, said Paul Wright, executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center. FCC action is needed on intrastate rates because some public utility commissions do not have jurisdiction in some states, he said.
Ancillary charges, like initiation and payment processing fees, can make up 38 percent of the cost of a call, said Aleks Kajstura, legal director of the Prison Policy Initiative. Industry representatives invited to speak on a panel said they backed some form of regulation. Consistent rules on charges would ease the financial stress on the families of inmates and would make it easier for them to understand what they're being charged for, said William Pope, president of NCIC, which provides phone services to correctional institutions. Until the FCC “fixes fees, you're wasting everyone’s time” in trying to bring down inmate phone costs, and “spitting in the wind,” said Vincent Townsend, president of Pay-Tel Communications, which also provides phone service to inmates.
Credit card payments involving a customer service representative through a vendor website can carry fees as high as $10.95 and are among a number of fees that have been raised by some companies after the interim rates were adopted, according to materials Townsend distributed. Both companies said they don’t charge many of the fees other providers do. In addition to rates, reforms are needed for deaf inmates, said Talila Lewis, founder of Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf. Only three prisons have video phones, so prisoners who are deaf are forced to spend their sentences with trouble communicating with friends and family at all, she said. (kmurakami@warren-news.com)