Breaking the Cycle of Prison Poverty One Phone Call at a Time

I want to highlight an issue on which we can work together: reducing the egregiously high cost of calls from jails and prisons -- rates so high that it puts connectivity at risk for too many, particularly our impoverished families. We should do all in our power to promote connectivity with the incarcerated, and that begins with you actively challenging the current system of rates that are so high that it actively discourages communication because families and friends cannot afford to keep in touch.

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to enact permanent reforms to reduce all rates and charges in a manner that ensures robust security features but makes rates affordable. Still, I need your help. I need your help in getting the word to lawmakers and those who elect them at the federal and state levels about the egregious nature of the cost of phone calls from jails and prisons, how these costs are further bankrupting families and communities, and why they should support the FCC's efforts to reform this regime. What we are proposing will neither compromise those security protocols that must be in place nor justify the threat of some facilities that promise to eliminate the ability for inmates to make calls all together if we lower rates.