States Say Delay of Prison-Calling Rules Hurts Consumers, Public Interest
California, New York and other “blue” states supported an application for review asking the FCC to rescind a Wireline Bureau order delaying some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027 (see 2507310049). Other groups also supported the review in filings posted Tuesday in docket 23-62.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“The unreasonable delay associated with this suspension -- which the Bureau has styled as an industry-wide ‘temporary waiver’-- will cause serious harm to consumers and the public interest,” the states said. The order violates the Administrative Procedure Act “in numerous respects, including by failing to comply with required notice and comment rulemaking, arbitrarily and capriciously ignoring critical issues and evidence in the record, and violating the Bureau’s own regulations.” The delay is also contrary to the Martha Wright-Reed Act, which directed the FCC to promulgate rules by January 2025, the filing said.
The benefits of removing communication barriers for incarcerated people and their families “are well-documented and have been borne out in states where communication costs have been lowered or eliminated,” the states said. The filing was also signed by Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Groups representing prisoners and their families took aim at arguments previously made by IPCS providers and others who support a delay (see 2509020049). “Contrary to opponents’ arguments, the Bureau was required to provide notice and comment before issuing the Suspension Order, the Bureau failed to adequately weigh the public interest harms of the Suspension Order, and the Bureau overrode congressional intent.” Among the groups signing the filing were the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Pennsylvania Prison Society, National Consumer Law Center, Prison Policy Initiative, Public Knowledge and United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry.
Move On and Worth Rises, meanwhile, submitted to the FCC a petition signed by more 10,000 people asking that the rules not be delayed. IPCS providers, with the support of prisons, jails and detention centers, “charge families egregious rates to connect with their loved ones,” the groups said. “As a result, one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt trying to stay connected, and 87% of those carrying this burden are women, predominantly women of color.”