'They're profiting off pain': the push to rein in the $1.2 billion prison phone industry

Two companies, Securus and GTL, control more than 70% of the market for prison calls. These companies have won contracts across the US by awarding kickbacks and commissions to jail and prison facilities, and boosted profits by adding consumer fees and including extra services into phone contracts. Prison reform advocates are now pushing for legislation to make phone calls free for prisoners or significantly lower and cap the high rates and fees charged by prison phone corporations. New York City and San Francisco made phone calls from local jails in 2019, the first major cities in the US to do so. Statewide bills to make phone calls in prisons and jails free have been proposed in CT and MA. But progress at the federal level to reduce prison phone call rates were rolled back under the Trump administration as the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, directed FCC lawyers to stop defending caps on call rates approved by the agency in 2015 under Obama from a legal challenge filed by the prison phone industry.