Families Of Prisoners Will No Longer Be Charged Obscene Rates Just To Talk On The Phone

Biden signed the Martha Wright-Reed Act into law last week.

One of the main things we know decreases the likelihood of prisoners reoffending after their sentence is up and increases their likelihood of success post-release is contact with friends and family on the outside. Given this, it's pretty counterintuitive for prisoner phone calls and video visits to be as incredibly expensive as they have been, making it difficult for low-income families to stay in contact with their incarcerated loved ones. This has been especially difficult for the estimated 2.7 million children with at least one incarcerated parent.

But that's about to change. Last week, President Joe Biden signed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022 into law, aimed at lowering the rates of phone calls made from prisons and jails through the FCC. Specifically, the bill will "amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to ensure just and reasonable charges for telephone and advanced communications services in correctional and detention facilities."

The FCC has previously tried and failed to regulate these costs, capping them at 25 cents a minute back in 2013. Unfortunately, prison telecom companies — which make an incredible amount of money off these phone calls — successfully challenged the rule in court, arguing that the agency lacked the authority to regulate their rates. The agency had planned to appeal the ruling but then Donald Trump was elected. Trump's FCC chair Ajit Pai agreed with the court that the FCC lacked the authority to regulate the costs of prison phone calls but promised to address the issue "lawfully." This, obviously, never actually happened.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and recently retired Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), will give the FCC the authority the court ruled it lacked and enable the agency to regulate the costs of these phone calls. It is named for the late Martha Wright-Reed, a retired nurse who advocated for lower prison phone call rates for more than 20 years after her grandson was incarcerated and she couldn't afford to keep in touch with him.

“No family member should ever have to choose between staying in touch with an incarcerated loved one and paying the bills,” said Duckworth in a statement. 

"The FCC has for years 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," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said after the bill passed the House and Senate. "Today, thanks to the leadership of Senators Duckworth, Portman and their bipartisan coalition, the FCC will be granted the authority to close this glaring, painful, and detrimental loophole in our phones rate rules for incarcerated people."

Yes, this is the humane thing to do, but it's also a very practical thing to do. We don't really "do" rehabilitation in US prisons, so making phone calls less expensive is an easy (and cheap) way to reduce recidivism, least of all so that we do not have to pay for people to go back to prison after they've been released.

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