The attempt of the Federal Communications Commission to cut US prison telephone rates for local and long distance calls were put on hold by the federal appeals court. This move will most likely affect more than two million prisoners that utilize the service.
As reported by The Star, the US Court of Appeals have issued an order to hold the new lower rate caps and a related rule which limits the fees for a certain single call service. The court, however, allowed the elimination of ancillary fees. The elimination will take effect on March 17 for prisons and June 20 for jails.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the new FCC regulations limited the rate for debit and prepaid calls to 11 cents per minute and restricted a number of ancillary fees that will be put on it. The prison companies, however, sued the FCC and asked the court to change the new rate. This forced the court to put a pending order until after the oral arguments have taken place.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said they regret that the high inmate calling rates will be delayed for besieged families including their 2.7 million children whose trying to keep in touch with their loved ones but at the same time delighted with the court's decision to remove the ancillary fees which they believe will help save the inmates families 40% of the total fee.
The FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai who voted against the new rule said he was not surprised with the court's decision to prevent the rate cap from being implemented. He added that the rule of law is ridiculed rather than respected but is still thankful that a federal court is there to rebuke an agency that doesn't follow the rule of law, as per RT.
According to FCC, the lower fees are directed towards helping prisoners keep in touch with their families and friends. The higher rate they have contacts with their significant others will lower the likelihood of them committing crimes and returning back to prison.
