What Must We Do to get fair rates ON ALL CALLS?
A proceeding is before the Federal Communications Commission that can serve as the vehicle for a comprehensive resolution to the problem of exorbitant telephone prices for prisoner-initiated phone calls. Alternative Rulemaking Proposal Related to Inmate Calling Services submitted by Martha Wright, et al. (Petitioners) on March 1, 2007, CC Docket No. 96-128, DA 03-4027. As we have seen, the Wright Proceeding involves a group of consumers challenging interstate long-distance rates at three privately operated prisons. Not specifically at issue in the case are intrastate long-distance rates, rates at any other privately operated prisons or detention facilities, or rates at government operated facilities of any kind. In short, the issues involved in the Wright case are quite narrow, and while a favorable resolution would be helpful, it would not resolve the broader problem.
However, at least two factors suggest that, through Wright, a comprehensive resolution may be possible.
First, it is clear that the FCC has the authority and the jurisdiction to impose regulations that address the interests of all the parties to the dispute in a way that serves the public interest. Section 276 of the 1996 Telecom Act requires the FCC “to ensure that all payphone service providers (and inmate phone service providers) are fairly compensated for each and every completed intrastate and interstate call....”
Second, in Wright, the prisoner telephone service providers were required to submit detailed information regarding their actual costs. A report was prepared using the FCC’s “marginal location analysis,” which is designed to “cover costs and provide a reasonable return at a break-even location with no commission.” Don J. Wood, Inmate Calling Services – Interstate Call Cost Study (filed 15 August 2008)(Wood Report). As noted elsewhere on this site, a 2002 ruling of the FCC prohibited the use of commissions as an element of costs. Order 21 February 2002, ¶ 15, p. 8, and ¶ 38, p. 15 (CC Docket No. 96-128).
The prisoner telephone service providers’ cost study demonstrates that rates very near those proposed by the Wright Petitioners provide fair compensation while eliminating commissions and substantially reducing over-all expenses to the people bearing the cost of prisoner-initiated phone calls. (In some situations, the Wood Report figures result in slightly higher rates; in other cases, the rates would be lower. Calls of about 14 minutes or more would be less costly under the rates proposed in the Wood Report. A more complete analysis of those figures can be accessed on this site at “What Are You Paying." A proposal for a comprehensive resolution of the abuses that have grown with the development of prisoner phone services has been filed with the FCC: Hamden Ex Parte Proposal (29 October 2008).
In short, it seems there is some common ground upon which it may be possible to forge a comprehensive resolution to this intractable injustice which may meet with the satisfaction of many of the interested parties. To move the effort forward, refer to "
What’s The Fix,” and “
Let’s Campaign for Fair Rates.”
