Prisoner Advocates Weigh Next Steps After Wireline Bureau Delays Prison-Calling Rules
Groups representing prisoners and their families told us they’re examining their options after what they saw as a surprising decision by the FCC Wireline Bureau to delay some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027 (see 2506300068). Just last month, the government defended the order before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering the challenges of IPCS providers Securus and Pay Tel, as well as other groups (see 2504250030).
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Advocates are considering next steps, said Cheryl Leanza, policy adviser for the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry. “Our hearts go out to the families now possibly facing a boomerang of costs and a loss of consumer protection,” she told us. Many correctional facilities “easily and seamlessly moved to the new rules and rates without any problem."
Leanza said the waiver came “out of the blue” and wasn't sought by IPCS providers, law enforcement or the states challenging the order in court. Securus had indicated “it would seek a modest extension of the waiver it already has, and GTL did not even challenge the FCC’s decision in court, let alone seek a waiver,” she said. The “decision grasps at straws in the record to build a decision with no foundation.”
Aliza Kaplan, director of the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School, said in an email that “the legal team has not yet met to decide on next steps yet, but I think it is important to point out how this very disturbing decision hurts incarcerated people and their family and friends.” She noted that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr voted for the order less than a year ago (see 2407180039).
Stephen Raher, who advocates on behalf of prisoners and their families, also said he’s uncertain what steps his side will take. The order is “deeply troubling from both a legal and policy standpoint,” he said. “We're all finding out day by day what governance looks like in a system where emotion and personal connections are prioritized over the law.”
Congress required the FCC to implement the new IPCS rules in the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 not later than January 2025, Raher noted. “The FCC did the hard work and met that deadline,” he said. “The Administrative Procedure Act is clear that modification of rules requires notice and comment, but the … order sidestepped that requirement for reasons that aren't really clear.”
While Carr voted in favor of the order last July, he raised concerns that resurfaced this week. “The record shows that a number of institutions are or soon will be limiting the availability of IPCS due to concerns with the FCC’s 2024 decision,” Carr said in a news release Monday. There's also “concerning evidence that the 2024 decision does not allow providers and institutions to properly consider public safety and security interests when facilitating these services.”
In his statement last year, Carr raised almost identical concerns. “At least some IPCS providers will likely lose money for every call made under the new rules,” he said. “It is in nobody’s interest for these providers to exit the market, or for smaller facilities to go unserved because the economics no longer make sense.”