Big price cut ordered for phone and video calls for Texas jail inmates in 2024

Fees Texas inmates pay to make calls will be slashed under new federal regulations approved this month. High rates that had averaged 23 cents a minute for Texas jail inmates have long been a target of prisoners, their families, and advocates.

The Federal Communications Commission voted last Thursday to approve regulations, to take effect next year, that cap the price of inmate phone and video calls at prices as low as 5 cents per minute.

The prices and caps differ throughout the state, and depend on prison size as well as differences between state and local rules. While Texas had lowered the price of phone calls in state correctional facilities - prisons and jails run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at the state level - to 6 cents a minute in 2018, rates in county jails run by local jurisdictions are often much higher. And the price of video calls was uncapped across the state. The Prison Policy Initiative found that the average price of an in-state call from a Texas jail was 23 cents per minute in 2021.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called these rates "unconscionable" in a statement, noting that sometimes a single phone call costs the equivalent to an unlimited monthly cell plan.

The new regulations will be implemented in stages. It will be in effect for all correctional facilities around the country by April 1, 2026, at the latest.

Drew Willey, a Houston attorney who has been a long-time advocate for free phone calls for inmates in Harris County Jail, praised the new rules requiring lower rates. "It stops really egregious violations in places where they've not paid any attention to this and let these private corporations just run up the bills on everybody," Willey said.

The new caps are based on jail size, with lower ceilings at larger jails and prisons. The new national per-minute ceilings range from 6 to 12 cents for phone calls and 11 to 25 cents for video calls. Texas law means that the fees charged at state correctional facilities will be capped at 5 cents per minute.

Texas law mandates that all revenue from phone and video calls made from Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities - including prisons, private prisons, and state jails - must be divided between the provider and the state. The law states that 40 percent of the revenue must go to the state and the remaining 60 percent goes to the contractor. The majority of the money the state collects is allocated to the Texas Crime Victims Fund, with the remaining portion going to the general revenue fund.

One aspect of the new FCC regulations will be a cap on commissions paid to government agencies of 2 cents per minute. Since the 40 percent of revenue paid to the government cannot exceed 2 cents per minute, the cost of phone and video calls in all Texas prisons and jails is effectively limited to 5 cents per minute, 16% below a current cap for state inmates that has been 6 cents a minute. This change does not affect county jails.

Willey said that when he started his advocacy in 2017, in Harris County, the price for a 20-minute phone call was $14.99. Harris County now has a contract that gives detainees up to four free calls per week and sets the cost of phone calls beyond that at 2 cents per minute. Many correctional facilities in the state still maintain a higher rate.

Advocates say their goal is free calls for Texas inmates, matching what some states already provide. Wiley says that free calls would decrease recidivism rates, prevent wrongful convictions by providing proper access to representation, improve inmate mental health, and increase public safety by not completely isolating detainees before they reintegrate into society.

The new rules also prevent telecom providers from tacking on fees for "ancillary services." Previously, companies often charged for things like making a one-time call without an account or for depositing funds into an account in order to pay for future calls.

Additionally, the regulation ensures that money left over in a released inmate's account isn't seized by the telecom companies. These companies now have to try to return the money if they know someone has been released or if the money hasn't been used for 180 days. If they can't return it, they must give it to state programs that keep unclaimed money safe - which in Texas will likely be the unclaimed property division of the state comptroller's office. One company, Global Tel*Link, pocketed an average of more than $1.2 million a month from unused funds for over eight years, according to a Georgia lawsuit.

For all prisons and jails with an average daily population of 1,000 or more, compliance is required by Jan. 1, 2025. Smaller jails, with fewer than 1,000 inmates, must comply by April 1, 2025. If correctional facilities have existing contracts with telecom companies as of June 27, 2024, compliance is required by the earlier of the contract expiration date or Jan. 1, 2026, for larger facilities, and April 1, 2026, for smaller facilities.

"The FCC's order is a massive victory for incarcerated people, their families, and their allies who have spent decades fighting the exploitative prison telecom industry," the Prison Policy Initiative wrote in a statement. "Of course, it does not mean the long fight for communications justice is over."

Lioness Justice Impacted Women's Alliance - an advocacy group for incarcerated women in Texas - echoed other advocates, saying they will continue working toward "comprehensive reforms that ensure all incarcerated individuals have the opportunity to stay connected with their loved ones without financial barriers."

Along with monetary changes, the FCC also decided that telecom companies must ensure their communication devices and services - such as phone calls, video chats, and messaging - are accessible to incarcerated people with disabilities. This will improve communication options for incarcerated individuals who have hearing or speech disabilities. If it's not possible to make these devices and services accessible for specific disabilities, companies must ensure their systems can work with devices that people with disabilities commonly use.

The federal changes come after some sparring in the courts, where the FCC's authority to limit these rates was challenged. In 2022, the FCC was granted full authority to regulate inmate calls by Congress with the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act - named after a grandmother who filed a petition with the FCC about the rates more than two decades ago.

"Today, using this new law, we fix what has been wrong for too long," Rosenworcel said.

The FCC released the final order on inmate calls this Monday, officially cementing the regulation.

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