Poor Ajit Pai, he was the FCC chairman under Trump, and he made it his special project to allow predatory prison telephone companies to charge families $14 a minute to speak to their incarcerated mothers and fathers. When Biden was elected, Pai made a hasty exit to be among his kind in the sleazy world of private equity. It took a few years, but the FCC has finally hung up on prison phone profiteers by unanimously voting to slash the outrageous rates incarcerated people and their families have been forced to pay for basic communication.
The new rules will more than halve the per-minute rate caps for all prison and jail calls nationwide. They'll also regulate video call rates for the first time ever and ban sneaky fees. All told, it's estimated to save families $500 million per year.
Even better, the FCC is forcing prisons to foot the bill for all that invasive surveillance tech they've been using to spy on inmates. No more passing those costs onto families just trying to stay connected. As Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises, notes, "We're thrilled that the FCC has agreed that incarcerated people and their families should not have to pay for their own harmful and invasive surveillance."
Of course, the prison telecom industry is throwing a tantrum over potentially losing hundreds of millions in ill-gotten gains. Boo-hoo. Maybe they should've thought of that before price-gouging captive customers for years.
Image: Worth Rises
Previously:
• Every word Ajit Pai says about Net Neutrality is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'
