The FCC Just Voted to Reduce the Exorbitant Cost of Prison Phone Calls

A long campaign to reduce the exorbitant sums that inmates are charged to speak to friends and family on the phone just notched a major victory, with the Federal Communications Commission voting 3–2 to aggressively regulate an industry that until recently was, in the words of the Prison Policy Initiative’s Peter Wagner, “a dark little backwater of telecommunication that the FCC was not paying attention to.” Full Article

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People in this industry got away with literally hundreds of billions of dollars, enough to dig out way out of national debt, on the backs of inmates and their loved ones.

Even those in jail who are found innocent were forced to pay to hear the voices of their loved ones seeking comfort in distressful situations.

Please let there be a God and please let there be a Hell. When i die, i certainly don’t want to live among those who enjoy hurting people. We get that enough here on Earth.

I’m surprised to read this. I remember jail having expensive phone calls, but before I had a cell, I was making many calls a week and the cost was something like $2 per 15minute call. Sure, not cheat, but not exactly what I’d call exorbitant.

I think the FCC needs to fix the message that continually repeats during a 15 minute phone call. “This call is from an inmate….”. Costs were not so bad, but the interruption of an automated reminder was. Now the amount spent to use the quasi email system was ridiculous. As was having a 15 song download limit per day for the mp3 player and having to wait until the next day for some songs to be available despite already being purchased.

And the operator says, ’40 cents more for the next 3 minutes’

Sorry, this reminded me of Dr. Hook “sylvia’s Mother’