Referenews

Federal regulators have already capped certain costs associated with inmate-calling services and rates for out-of-state calls. However, in-state calls make up the majority of calls from people who are incarcerated and the new bill would enable the FCC to regulate prices for those services as well.

The inmate-calling market is largely covered by two companies: ViaPath Technologies, previously known as GTL, and Securus Technologies Inc. A spokesman for ViaPath said the company has worked with regulators to lower prices over the past several years, and will continue to work to lower costs. 

A spokeswoman for Aventiv Technologies LLC, the parent company of Securus, said the company supports the bill and is aligned with Congress and the FCC.

“We will continue to work with regulators to take a data-driven approach that delivers technology solutions that are affordable and accessible to consumers,” she said.

In 2020, the FCC said it had identified instances in which a 15-minute in-state debit or prepaid call from a corrections facility cost as much as $24.80, almost seven times more than the maximum $3.15 that an out-of-state call of the same duration would cost.

The average jail in the U.S. charged about $3 for a 15-minute phone call as of late 2021, according to a report released earlier this month by the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit group that does research and advocates for criminal justice reform. 

Families of people who have been incarcerated, lawmakers and some FCC commissioners have long criticized service providers and their predecessors for charging steep rates, which the companies and law-enforcement groups have previously argued were reasonable.

“Too many families of incarcerated people must pay outrageous rates to stay connected with their loved ones,” FCC Chairwoman

Jessica Rosenworcel

said in a statement last week. “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.”

The legislation directs the FCC, when considering rates, to factor in security costs associated with providing phone or video-communication services.  

The National Sheriffs’ Association, a trade group representing sheriffs and deputies, supported the bill because it recognizes that those security costs and the size of a given facility should be factored into any pricing decisions, Executive Director

Jonathan Thompson

said.

In 2015, the FCC moved to cap what it described as “excessive rates and egregious fees” paid by inmates, saying combined charges and fees in some cases had reached as high as $14 a minute, or an estimated 31 times the per-minute cost of a call to Antarctica at the time.

That effort was struck down in court as prison phone companies and some states argued that the commission had exceeded its statutory authority and had unlawfully disregarded the actual costs of providing inmate calling services.

In the years since, the FCC has moved to lower the cap price of out-of-state and international calls. States have also taken their own steps to reduce the burden on inmates. Lawmakers in both Connecticut and California have moved to make phone calls from state prisons free for inmates. 

The bill is named after

Martha Wright-Reed,

a Washington, D.C., woman who spent years advocating for stronger regulations on inmate phone call rates. Ms. Wright-Reed petitioned the FCC in 2003 after years earlier suing a company operating the prison where her grandson was incarcerated. She died in 2015.

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com