Norton to Speak on Exorbitant Prison Phone Rates and her Efforts to Resolve the Issue at FCC Inmate Calling Services Workshop, Today

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today, July 10, 2013, at 11:00 a.m., at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) headquarters (445 12th St. SW), will deliver remarks at a workshop on inmate calling services hosted by the FCC. Norton, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Working Group on Prison Telecomm Reform, will discuss the often exorbitant rates that prisoners and their families are being charged for telephone calls and the efforts she and her CBC colleagues have been leading in the Congress to resolve the issue after more than a decade of delay by the FCC.

"Inmates and their families are particularly indebted to Acting Chairwoman Clyburn for not only hosting today's workshop, but especially for leading the effort that brought the FCC rulemaking to end to the exorbitant phone rates prisoners and their families are charged," said Norton. "These often prohibitively expensive rates make it more difficult for incarcerated people to communicate with their loved ones and support systems. Yet, conclusive evidence has long shown that of the many approaches to reduce recidivism and successfully reintegrate ex-offenders into civil society, such contact and communication with a support system of family and loved ones during incarceration stands out above others."

Norton, who led CBC efforts to respond to the FCC notice of proposed rulemaking, has long worked to ensure inmates receive the support they need to successfully reintegrate into civil society and works closely with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) because D.C. Code felons have been incarcerated in BOP facilities since passage of the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997. In April, along with former D.C. prisoners and their family members, Norton spoke at a CBC press conference 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 FCC notice of proposed rulemaking to make prison calling rates reasonable. In 2012, Norton got the BOP to allow all D.C. juveniles convicted as adults under the D.C. Code to be housed in the city until they become adults, to keep them near their families and friends before making the transition to adult facilities. These D.C. children were being sent to a BOP facility in North Dakota until the Congresswoman sought this change. Norton also got BOP to keep short-term D.C. Code felons here, reducing the cost of transporting them to an out-of-state BOP facility while ensuring that inmates can retain ties to family and community support.

Published: July 10, 2013