Some Want Ancillary Fee Clarity; Few ICS Draft Changes Expected

Some inmate calling services providers and advocates back FCC-proposed interim rate caps for interstate and international ICS calls (see 2104280084), said those who spoke with us recently. Some said the commission didn’t go far enough and needs to clarify how site commission payments factor into the new rates. Don't look for big changes between the proposal released April 29 and what commissioners vote for at their May 20 meeting, one official said.

The way the agency regarded site commission payments in setting the interim rate caps is “confusing,” said NCIC Inmate Communications CEO Bill Pope, and could be putting its order “into jeopardy” by regulating third-party contracts. “They just need to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to cap the rates at 14 and 16 cents per minute,’ and if you want to do a carrier recovery, then OK.”

That the FCC took the position facilities could impose a monetary commission is “problematic,” said Human Rights Defense Center Executive Director Paul Wright (see 2104270043). Incarcerated people and their families pay “these hedge fund-owned corporations literally for the privilege of getting a monopoly contract to ruthlessly exploit people in these facilities,” he said (see 2105030059). The United Church of Christ called “highly problematic” the “justification of site commissions in the draft order.” UCC cited the pandemic and that the commission would also issue a Further NPRM on the issue, recapping a conversation with an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The FCC didn't respond to a request for comment Wednesday. It points to the draft order for its rationale behind the proposed rate caps. It's “unlikely that any provider will be unable to recover its actual costs of providing interstate inmate calling services under any contract,” the plan said.

It’s unlikely there will more than “a couple of tweaks here and there” to the final order, said an FCC official: Most providers don’t see the new caps as unexpected because this aligns with the cost information they submitted to the commission. The final order will “probably look quite similar to what it does now,” the official said. No ICS companies lobbied the agency on the issue since the draft was released, docket 12-375 shows.

While Global Tel*Link disagrees “with certain points in the draft order, we believe lower rates will benefit incarcerated individuals and their families and friends,” said a statement Wednesday. It said it established a “permanent free communications program that offers all incarcerated individuals serviced by GTL access to a baseline of free communications” and has resulted in over 85 million free weekly calls during the past year.

Securus looks “forward to a fair and data-driven rulemaking process that will improve affordability in a way that is reasonable for all parties,” emailed a spokesperson. “Securus is proud of the technology we provide to keep families connected while a loved one is incarcerated, and we are equally proud of our ongoing initiatives that are lowering rates while maintaining critical public safety infrastructure.”

The FCC needs to clarify its rationale behind the $6.95 cap on transaction fees for single-call services, Pope said. “There’s no need for a transaction fee on a single call.” Reducing interstate rate caps and setting a rate cap for single-call services is a “necessary step, but unfortunately too little and applies to far too few,” said Worth Rises Executive Director Bianca Tylek, in a statement. “Not only does the new rate cap only apply to interstate rates, but it only applies to facilities with more than 1,000 people, which in many cases won’t be impacted by the new rate caps,” Tylek said: “These rate caps are most impactful in the smaller suburban and rural facilities that have been left out.”

The commission “absolutely” could have gone further in lowering the rate caps, HRDC's Wright said. Some prisons charge less than 5 cents per minute, Wright said, and charging incarcerated people 12 cents is “stunningly out of touch.” Companies like GTL and Securus don’t have an incentive to drop rates, he said, because they “don’t have to vie for any consumer business.”

GTL had sought a petition for reconsideration on the jurisdictional nature of a phone call, which the FCC denied. Wright hopes for enforcement action against ICS providers “in the near future” because they may not be complying with prior FCC orders on the issue. “We’ve gotten complaints about people saying that they’re still being charged ancillary fees, even though the FCC banned them,” Wright said. His organization is suing GTL over its rates for single-call services.

NCIC's Pope said he would like the FCC to lock in more specific rates for intrastate calls. He wants more action on international calls, saying those rates change often. “Each country [varies] based on their monopoly provider,” Pope said. Wright was glad the issue was addressed in the draft order because a significant portion of people behind bars in states along the southern border are noncitizens.