CPUC Urged to Tackle Non-Voice Prison Rates
Inmate calling service providers could shift costs to video calling if the California Public Utilities Commission caps only voice rates, said public advocates Wednesday at a CPUC prehearing conference. After last month capping voice intrastate ICS rates at 7 cents a minute on an interim basis (see 2108190046), the commission is preparing for a phase two that might include rates for text and video services, despite some ICS providers disagreeing they're under the agency’s jurisdiction. Some providers sought a several-month delay so the effectiveness of new interim rates can be analyzed.
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Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves raised concern about an “atrocious practice” alleged at the hearing by Worth Rises Executive Director Bianca Tylek, representing the Californians for Jail and Prison Phone Justice Coalition. Guzman Aceves is the assigned commissioner for docket R.20-10-002. Tylek said some ICS providers used contracts to restrict in-person visits to drive more calls. The most egregious examples of the practice from 2015-17 have ended, but Tylek recently saw a Global Tel*Link contract requiring a correctional facility to limit in-person visits to once a week, she said. GTL didn’t comment at the hearing and declined to comment on our query.
CPUC efforts to lower rates “can be completely undermined if it doesn't regulate other types of communication services,” said Tylek. Providers bundle voice with text and video services, so if the commission caps only voice rates the providers could try to make up for it by increasing other costs, she said. Tylek’s claim about providers restricting in-person visits makes California Public Advocates Office (PAO) attorney Scott Merrill “think what would happen if we choose not to set a rate cap on video calling services,” he said: There could be a further push by providers to use video calling over voice for prison communications. The CPUC “can and should” regulate video calls, said Center for Accessible Technology Legal Counsel Paul Goodman.
Providers are expected to respond to discovery requests from any parties seeking information about non-voice services, even though the commission hasn’t determined jurisdiction, said the proceeding’s assigned Administrative Law Judge Cathleen Fogel. She clarified a ruling earlier this week compelling GTL to give PAO video calling data (see 2109130044). Bundling is “certainly relevant,” Fogel said. The CPUC expects to post a scoping order in mid- to late October, she said.
Fogel asked ICS providers to specify how many months the commission should wait to collect data on interim rates. At least five or six months, responded GTL attorney Angela Collins. She noted the FCC’s interim order must be implemented by the end of October, and December data might not be representative because calling increases around the holidays. NCIC Inmate Communications attorney Lee Petro noted holiday calling programs could skew data.
Consumer group officials cautioned the CPUC not to let waiting for data slow momentum for reducing costs for the incarcerated. The issue is urgent, especially in a pandemic, said San Francisco Financial Justice Director Anne Stuhldreher. “People are frantic to stay in touch with their incarcerated loved one, and phone calls are often the only way to do that.” Merrill doesn’t “think it's necessarily a bad thing” to wait to see interim rates’ impact, but “don't stop for six months and do nothing.”