NARUC, Like FCC, Asking State Regulators to Review Prison Phone Rates

NARUC and FCC leaders are in agreement that inmate calling service rates need to be examined. NARUC President Brandon Presley agreed with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Presley wrote Thursday. Pai had written the organization earlier this week.

"Exorbitant" ICS "rates discourage family engagement, communication and hamper the successful reentry of incarcerated persons," Presley said. "We are asking all of our members to take a comprehensive review in their jurisdictions around these rates and take action where warranted. We agree with Chairman Pai on the importance of inmates’ access to reasonable calling rates. Safety, reliability and reasonable rates are at the core of our members’ public service mandate."

"Many of our members do not have authority over these rates," noted Presley (D), also a Mississippi Public Service Commission member. In this publication's survey of chairmen of all state commissions that received Pai's recent letter, we have found the same, while a few said their agencies had previously acted. "In many cases, state-level corrections officials hold and negotiate these contracts outside the purview of state public service commissions," Presley wrote. He asked Pai to join him in co-signing letters to governors and corrections officials and "ask that they review these contracts."

The FCC didn't immediately comment. ICS providers haven't been commenting, either.