The president is expected to sign a new law that will allow the FCC to regulate prison calling rates. Under the threat of having to provide a solid product for a reasonable price, companies may decide to call it quits and open up the market to a more compassionate and forward- thinking generation of providers.
Prison calling systems are dependent on the state and the prison system. With a captive customer base, companies had no reason to innovate and financial models that involved kickbacks to the prisons and states were not worth the effort.
Inmates are often charged extortionate rates for simple services like phone calls and video calls, and have had their rights to visit revoked, leaving paid calls the only option. People of color and those with low incomes are disproportionately affected by this particular financial burden.
It has been this way for a long time, and former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn spent years trying to change it. Before she left the agency, she called inmates the most glaring type of market failure she had ever seen. She gave a lot of credit to Martha Wright-Reed, a grandmother who had organized and represented the fight to bring reform to the system, until she died.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn talks privacy, compromise and connecting communities
The bill today is named after Martha Wright- Reed. The FCC is given the power to ensure just and reasonable charges for telephone and advanced communications services in jails and prisons. Changes to the Communications Act of 1934, which established the FCC and is regularly updated for this purpose, is one of the reasons it does this. When the festivities relating to the spending bill, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit, and the holiday address pass, the bill will be signed by the president.
The FCC has moved aggressively to address this terrible problem, but we have been limited in the extent to which we can address rates for calls made within a state's borders. Thanks to the leadership of Senators Duckworth, Portman and their bipartisan coalition, the FCC will be given the authority to close this glaring, painful, and detrimental loophole in our phones rate rules for inmates. Wright-Reed and Clyburn were thanked.
Free Press has collected a number of other comments from interested parties, all lauding the legislation for curbing "carceral profiteering" and generally benefiting inmates instead of treating them like a source of labor or easy cash.
As soon as the FCC can pass a rule on the matter, costs will go down, but the effect will likely be more than that.
Most companies in place today will face greatly reduced revenues and increased scrutiny as the FCC requires reports and takes other measures to enforce the new rules. If a lot of these companies just get out, it would not be a surprise.
The introduction of regulation into a space like this, dominated for years by legacy providers, may well cause a changing of the guard with some states embracing new models like Ameelio's. The startup began as a way to mail postcards to inmates for free, but soon they had built a modern digital video calling infrastructure that is easier to operate than the legacy ones.
Ameelio’s free video calling service for inmates goes live at first facilities
Since the cost is so much lower and access is easier, Ameelio's service can be used for educational and legal advocacy in prison facilities. Emerge Career was found as a result of the discoveries of the founders.
A bunch of shady companies in a hurry to leave means a market opportunity as states scramble to find providers, but the next few years will probably see other companies step in as well.
The prison system is in dire need of reform, but that will happen piece by piece.
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