ICSolutions Opposes Recon Petition for FCC To Ban or Cap Site Commissions
Inmate Calling Solutions opposed inmate calling service rule changes sought by Michael Hamden, a lawyer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who has advocated for the ICS rights of inmates and their families. In a petition for partial reconsideration of a…
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2015 order, Hamden had asked the FCC to ban ICS provider site commission payments to correctional authorities and allow a modest, capped administrative cost recovery fee as an offset (see 1601200053). ICSolutions said the FCC at a minimum should deny the request to include a prohibition or cap on site commissions. "Any rule attempting to cap or prohibit commissions would not only be ineffective and raise multiple constitutional questions, but it would also be in excess of the FCC’s statutory authority and, therefore, unlawful," ICSolutions said in a filing Friday in docket 12-375. "The FCC does not have the statutory authority to dictate how providers of inmate telephone services ('ITS') use their profits and, therefore, cannot prohibit or otherwise cap ITS providers’ payment of commissions to facilities." ICSolutions said certain clarifications of FCC terms and rules Hamden sought were unnecessary, but it said it didn't oppose them.