Court stops FCC’s latest attempt to lower prison phone rates

Prison phone companies have convinced a court to halt new rate caps on inmate calling for the second time in March. The first stay was issued March 7 and prevented the Federal Communications Commission from implementing new rate caps of 11¢ to 22¢ per minute on both interstate and intrastate calls from prisons. But the stay—which remains in place while the prison phone companies' lawsuit against the FCC is still pending—did not disturb an earlier "interim" cap of 21¢ to 25¢ per minute that applied only to interstate calls, those that cross state lines. The order also didn't specifically object to the FCC changing its definition of "inmate calling service" to include both interstate and intrastate calls. Seizing on this ambiguity, the FCC decided that it could impose the interim caps on both interstate and intrastate calls. But prison phone companies Securus Technologies, Global Tel*Link (GTL), and Telmate all asked the federal appeals court to stop the caps from being applied to intrastate calls. Securus Technologies CEO Richard Smith argued that confusion about the rate caps could cause "chaos and confusion" in prisons, threatening security. A court order issued March 23 sided with the prison phone companies, saying that "petitioners have satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review." As a result, the interim rate caps will still apply only to interstate calls.