Inmate Advocates: FCC's IPCS Order Will Increase Costs for Families
The FCC's draft incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) order, which is set for a vote Tuesday, will vastly increase costs for the families of inmates, is based on questionable evidence, and doesn’t address legal questions about the Wireline Bureau’s June suspension of the agency’s existing IPCS deadlines and requirements (see 2506300068), said Worth Rises and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Office during a press call Monday. By raising rate caps and incorporating facility security costs into the price of calls, the draft item would force the families of incarcerated people to “pay for their own surveillance,” said UCC attorney Cheryl Leanza.
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While the FCC has argued that the draft item is necessary because facilities are unable to comply with the current rules and provide phone service, Worth Rises Executive Director Bianca Tylek said the evidence doesn’t bear that out. Only one state that had brought IPCS rates into compliance with the FCC’s existing rules -- Alabama -- has reversed course since the agency paused those requirements, she said. The FCC pointed to an Arkansas correctional facility that stopped offering IPCS as evidence that the current rules needed to be relaxed, but that facility hasn’t begun offering calls again in the wake of the rules' suspension, Tylek noted.
Tylek also said the increased rates would translate to a $215 million reduction in savings for inmates' families, compared with the current rules. Leanza added that the bureau’s suspension of the existing rules didn’t provide sufficient notice and was illegal, but it's unlikely to be challenged in court because it isn’t a final agency action. The interim rate caps established by Tuesday’s order will be appealable to the courts, she said.
Marsia Brana, whose husband is serving a life sentence in a correctional facility in Florida, said the ability to talk with her on the phone “keeps him holding on” but also costs her as much as a car payment. "Family communications shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”