US regulators are considering rate caps and other steps to lower jailhouse telephone rates that enrich private equity firms as they cost US prisoners and their families as much as $17 for a 15-minute call.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski Wednesday proposed information-gathering that could lead to a vote to intervene in the $1.2 billion prison-phone market, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said at a rally today.
“For far too long, friends and family of the incarcerated have had no choice but to pay unconscionably high long-distance rates,” Clyburn told demonstrators seeking lower rates who gathered outside the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
Clyburn, like the chairman a Democrat, said the proceeding was started by Genachowski and could lead to lower rates “soon,” without specifying a timeline. Rate caps are among steps under consideration, said two agency officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter hasn’t been made public.