Inmate telephone system

An inmate telephone system, also known as an Inmate Calling Service (ICS) or Inmate telephone service, is telephone service intended for use by inmates in correctional facilities in the United States. Telephone service for inmates allows for their rehabilitation by allowing consistent communication with their family and legal counsel while incarcerated.^{[1]: 65–66, 74}

In the United States, prison telecom is a $1.2 billion industry, mostly controlled by two private equity-backed companies^[2][3]: 23—Global Tel Link (GTL) with a 50% market share as of 2015.^[2][4] and Securus Technologies, with 20%.^[2][4] While there have been attempts by the United States' telecom regulator, the FCC, to regulate the costs of inmate telephone services, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that its policy violated the Telecommunications Act, which forbids the FCC from regulating intrastate communications.

In order to use an inmate telephone service, inmates must register and provide a list of names and numbers for the people they intend to communicate with.^[5] Call limitations vary depending on the prison's house rule, but calls are typically limited to 15 minutes each, and inmates must wait thirty minutes before being allowed to make another call.^[6] Calls are recorded and monitored by the prison's staff.^[7] Phone credits are typically accessed via an inmate account card.^[8] Since 2001, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has required that use be limited to 300 minutes per-month.^[1]

Jails and prisons tend to choose their providers based on which company will be able to pay said facility the most revenue in kickbacks.^[9]In the United States, the inmate telephone market is dominated by two providers, Global Tel Link (GTL) and Securus Technologies, with Global Tel-Link controlling approximately 50% of the market and Securus with 20%.^[2] The New York-based private equity firm, Veritas Capital, with assets of over five billion, acquired GTL under the tenure of Veritas' founder and CEO Robert B. McKeon.^[10][11] Mobile, Alabama-based GTL was a subsidiary of GTEL Holdings in 2009 and offered "inmate communications, investigative, facility management, visitation, payment and deposit, and content solutions".^[12]

New York-based American Securities purchased GTL for $1 billion in 2011, and Boston-based ABRY Partners purchased Securus in 2013 for $640 million.^[2] > When the global private-equity company Castle Harlan purchased Securus Technologies from Miami-based private equity company, H.I.G. Capital in 2011, they claimed that Securus was "the leading provider" of "inmate telecommunications for the corrections industry".^[13]

Rates for the telephone calls from prisons and jails can be shockingly high especially for low income families who are trying to keep in touch with their loved ones. Over the years telephone calls have come down but the rates are still generally too high for many people to stay in contact. Data has shown over the course of 10 years leading up to 2021, phone call per-minute rates have steadily declined. What makes the rates so high as well is the fact that these providers charge two separate rates, depending on same state or different state.^[14]

On August 9, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a report on the high cost of inmate calling services, with proposed reforms.^[15] A 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside, or in other instances, a fifteen-minute call could cost upwards of $15.^[16] It also reported that phone rates had "caused inmates and their friends and families to subsidize everything from inmate welfare to salaries and benefits, states’ general revenue funds and personnel training".^[2] At that time the FCC proposed capping the charge for interstate inmate phone calls at $3.75 for 15 minutes.^[17] The proposal was approved in 2014; a cap was also implemented to reduce the high long-distance charges that inmates incurred to eleven cents per minute,^[18] so that a fifteen-minute call should not cost more than $4. According to the FCC, Global Tel-Link had been charging as much as $17.30 for such calls under contracts with facilities in Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota, which resulted in "unreasonably high" phone bills for inmates' families.^[19] In retaliation for the change, service providers raised the rates on local calls.^[2]

In 2015, the FCC imposed new caps of 11¢ to 22¢ on all inmate calls. The decision was criticized by the industry, who felt that the capped prices would be insufficient to cover the commissions they must pay. By March, the new caps had been stayed pending the result of a lawsuit against the FCC filed by providers, but the FCC stated that it would enforce the existing caps on intrastate calls as well.^[20][21][22] In September 2015, Human Rights Watch requested that Michael Fisch, CEO of American Securities, the private equity group that owned GTL, step down from their board of directors as "GTL's exploitation of the ability of prisoners to communicate with their families and children is the antithesis of upholding human dignity and advancing human rights, and is in direct conflict with Human Rights Watch’s mission."^[23]

In November 2016, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a stay, requested by Securus, to block a proposed compromise by the FCC to set the rate cap to 13¢ to 31¢ per-minute on inter and intrastate calls. In the wake of the stay, Ajit Pai criticized Democrats for appealing and the courts for intervening on ICS rate regulations.^[24] The two ICS providers, GTL and CenturyLink, asked for a delay in another FCC hearing in Washington, that was set for February 6, 2017. By January 19, 2017, the D.C. Circuit still refused to pause the FCC challenge to reform inmate calling rates. Commissioners Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn, and Jessica Rosenworcel, who were on the August 2013 Commission when the reform report was adopted, had dissented in 2013, and were likely to find for GTL and CenturyLink.^[16][25]

Upon the start of the Trump administration, both Rosenworcel and Pai were nominated to the FCC. In his first week as chairman, Pai began to roll back, or declare his intent to roll back, a number of pro-consumer policies implemented by the FCC during the Obama administration (such as Net neutrality). As a result, Pai instructed the FCC's lawyers to cease defending the commission's actions in court.^[26][27][28] On June 13, 2017, the Appeals Court ruled in favor of Global Tel Link, arguing that the FCC's attempt to regulate the pricing of intrastate prison calls exceeded its authority under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which forbids the FCC from regulating intrastate communications.^[29][30]

In June 2019, Sen. Tammy Duckworth introduced the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, which would once again authorize the FCC to regulate prison phones and cap the rate of calls made from state and local prisons.^[31] It was passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in January, 2023.^[32]

In November of 2023, Massachusetts had became the fifth state to approve free jail and prison phone calls in the nation. This took many years of struggle and persuasion led by many people who are directly affected by the costs and rates of prison and jail phone calls to stay in contact with their loved ones. It is said that counties and the loved ones who provide money for the phone calls will be able to be refunded for their call cost's. It has been mentioned that the rates and costs of these phone calls have effected especially the loved ones of racial inequalities for Latino and Black families seeing as they proportionately earn less than white families. ^[33]

Telephone privileges in prisons/jails is something these facilities take very seriously. These days inmates have the free range to make calls almost any time during the day if they have the necessary funds. However, in the 1970s , inmates were only allowed about one telephone call to their loved ones every three months. Even though the privileges have significantly opened up for the inmates, these facilities monitor most phone calls. Each phone call made from an inmate to an outside source is recorded for safety and security purposes. The only exception to these recorded calls are the arranged calls between the inmates and their attorneys. The concern over the telephone privileges is the fear of the abuse that inmates take advantage of these calls and partake in criminal activity during discussion within these phone calls. Opening up the free range of unlimited phone calls for these inmates comes at a cost of allowing them to potentially committing serious criminal activity using the prison phones.^[34]

• Prison commissary – Store within a prison

• Federal Communications Commission
• Free Inmate lookup
• https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-11-17/massachusetts-becomes-fifth-state-in-nation-to-make-prison-calls-free