Norton Statement on Exorbitant Prison Phone Rates at Press Conference Today

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) issued the following statement for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Prison Telecomm Reform Working Group Press Conference today, featuring three D.C. residents, to expose the often exorbitant rates that prisoners and their families are being charged for telephone calls and to announce the CBC response to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to resolve the issue after more than a decade of delay.

"We are grateful to Ms. Martha Wright, a D.C. resident, for her diligence and devotion to her grandson, Ulandis Forte, which she also has converted into a personal search for fair phone charges for all incarcerated citizens, their families and loved ones. Ms. Wright was the lead plaintiff in a national class action lawsuit and then in the petition pending before the Federal Communications Commission for fair regulation of inmate phone services. She found the cost of communicating by phone to be prohibitive when her grandson was incarcerated and transferred among several Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities, miles from her home here in the District of Columbia. We are grateful also to Ms. Celestine Johnson, also a D.C. resident and mother of a man currently incarcerated in the BOP, also miles from her home, who has agreed to speak of her experience in communicating by phone with her son.

"Conclusive evidence has long shown that of the many approaches to reduce recidivism and successfully reintegrate ex-offenders into civil society, contact and communication with a support system of family and loved ones during incarceration stands out above others.

"The CBC is leading this effort for all the incarcerated citizens in state and federal prisons, but the Caucus has a special responsibility because of the disproportionate number of incarcerated people of color – the more than 60 percent who are African American or Hispanic, and almost 40 percent of these are African American. Among these families are also disproportionate numbers of low-income Americans, and considering the correlation between income and incarceration, the burden of excessively costly telephone calls falls most heavily on those who can least afford the expense. Communicating to loved ones, the best deterrent to recidivism, costs the government nothing, but the government and society benefit in reductions in crime and in the cost of incarceration when contact with family support is permitted and encouraged. However, government-commissioned exclusive contracts for inmate calling services that result in profiteering as well as kickbacks for discretionary use by prison officials take unfair advantage of both families and inmates who are without an effective recourse in the absence of action by the FCC.

"The CBC and its Prison Telecomm Reform Working Group, which I chair, sent its comments today to strongly urge the FCC to take the complete jurisdiction that Congress has given it over both intrastate and interstate inmate calls. Normally, of course, the FCC does not regulate intrastate calls. However, although most inmates in the U.S. are confined in state prisons, for purposes of inmate call services, Congress recognized U.S. prison inmates as a discrete national population, when it gave the FCC explicit authority "to prescribe regulations that establish a per call compensation plan to ensure that all payphone service providers are fairly compensated for each and every completed intrastate and interstate call" and that all charges are "just and reasonable." Yet, despite confinement in state prisons, a virtual monopoly of two dominant companies exerts national control over local and long distance inmate calls that allows vast differences in call rates, to permit kickbacks for discretionary prison use and for excessive profits. Thus, local calls range from $3.95 per call charge and an additional .89 cents per minute in Georgia and Alabama to no per call charge, but only a charge per minute of .23 cents in Michigan and in Federal Bureau of Prison facilities.

"Because state prisons house the great majority of inmates, whose families and loved ones often live within the state, the FCC would leave most calls unregulated unless it takes jurisdiction over "each and every completed intrastate and interstate call," as mandated by Sec. 201(b) of the Communications Act. Most state prison systems would be compelled to manage two inmate call systems – a system of regulated interstate calls and another for unregulated intrastate calls. In singling out inmates in the Act as a distinct population for specialized treatment under federal law by the FCC, Congress has required both efficiency as well as fairness to inmates and their families.

"After more than 10 years of delay, the FCC has an obligation to step up to the mandate explicitly required by Sections 201 and 276, as outlined in our CBC letter. The Commission is required to establish fair and reasonable call rates for both intrastate and interstate calls. It is too late for Ms. Wright and her grandson, who have persisted in this effort, to benefit personally. Ulandis Forte was released from prison in 2012 and is a contributing citizen to the economy of the District of Columbia as an employee of the Clark Construction Company. However, Ms. Johnson, her family, and hundreds of thousands like them have already waited far too long for relief. I know that inmates' families and other loved ones throughout the country would also join the CBC and me in thanking FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for her diligent efforts for years to get the FCC to respond to the petition, which it has recognized."

Published: April 24, 2013