Written
by James Lowery
As
Legacy has communicated to our valued clients for the past several months, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has
been considering proposing new rate regulations
on all inmate calling.
As a recap, in
2013 the FCC capped interstate calling rates at $0.25 for collect calls and
$0.21 for prepaid calls (FCC
13-113). Now, in partnership with Commissioner Clyburn, Chairman Wheeler is
proposing to cap rates for all ICS calls –
local, long-distance, and international – while limiting fees on calls. More...
Written
by Allyson Walker
Image by Peter
Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Roughly two-thirds of the nearly 700,000 people released
from U.S. prisons each year will be rearrested and many will be back behind
bars within just three years of their release.
A Growing Problem
This
sure isn’t helping to reduce the incarceration rate in the United States, which
has been the highest in the world for over a decade. In fact, while the U.S.
represents only about 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of the
world’s prisoners. With a cost of $24,000
per inmate per year and $5.1 billion in new prison construction, criminal
correction spending is the
second-fastest growing budgetary item after Medicaid.
More...
Written
by: Curtis A Brown
Photograph by: Credit Daniel Rosenbaum for The
New York Times
FCC 13-113 Overview
On
August 9, 2013 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a new rule, FCC 13-113, which imposes a strict inmate interstate call
rate cap. The new rule, which will
affect only calls made from one state to another, requires inmate communication
providers to charge no more than $0.21 per minute for interstate prepaid calling
and $0.25 per minute for interstate collect calling. It also suggests that further regulation may
be still to come, including ancillary charges as well as video visitation
services. Furthermore, the FCC strongly
recommends that the states themselves adopt new regulation capping inmate call
rates. Many of our clients have asked if
further regulation is on the horizon and what they can expect in the coming
months.
More...