Last night, UCC Media Justice joined a coalition of public interest groups that filed an Application for Review urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to overturn a recent decision by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau that suspends the 2024 FCC rules to lower price caps on prison phone calls.
The filing makes clear that the FCC Wireline Bureau’s decision to suspend these protections violates the bipartisan Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act — which was enacted by Congress in 2022 and signed into law by President Biden in January 2023 — and tasked the FCC with ensuring affordable and just communications services for incarcerated people. Before the Bureau’s decision, rules requiring a decrease in the cost of calls had gone into effect earlier this year.
The Bureau’s decision is as harmful as it is mystifying. The FCC’s action was premised on years of bipartisan work, implementing a law passed without opposition in Congress and with the support of the National Sheriffs Association to stop harms that policymakers and advocates from all political viewpoints and all walks of life well acknowledge.
The FCC voted 5-0 last summer and accommodated Commissioner Carr’s targeted request to review the impact on the smallest jails further. Chairman Carr’s general counsel defended the Commission’s decision in a full-throated, persuasive brief in April.
The UCC and others in the Christian community have long pressed for lower caps on communication to fulfill the Biblical mandate in Matthew 25 to visit and care for people in prison. Advocates interested in safety and efficiency note that lower costs keep families intact and improve the success rate for people once they rejoin their communities. Economic analysis from all quarters recognizes the broken marketplace, forcing families to pay outrageous rates far above market prices. Global Tel-Link, a calling provider and lead opponent of prior rounds of FCC policymaking, has but a minor quibble with the current rules.
As explained in the filing, the Bureau’s decision is completely without foundation—not relying on evidence or even requests from the industry or law enforcement. It goes far beyond the Bureau’s authority, a fact that the FCC majority just acknowledged last week in its open meeting when it agreed that Bureaus cannot conduct rulemakings.
The Bureau made findings that are directly contradictory to findings it made just a few short months ago. And it is completely unnecessary since companies seeking short-term, targeted waivers have already been granted relief.
The consequences are severe. Families that had seen price drops starting in January and April as the rules went into effect are seeing that relief snatched away after years of advocacy. Mothers will be telling their children they cannot talk to their dad this week. Marriages will attempt to stay strong on minutes of conversation while families struggle to put food on the table. Like Martha Wright-Reed, elderly grandparents will choose between saying, “I love you,” and buying life-saving medication. Clergy will need to cut back their counseling for congregants facing some of the most difficult and stressful moments of their lives.
Thousands of individuals and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have already filed at the FCC protesting the FCC’s decision. The legal filing provides a mechanism for the FCC to reverse the Bureau’s decision and quickly come into compliance with the law.
The FCC should review the Bureau’s decision without delay.
You can read the full Application for Review filing below. Then consider making a gift to UCC Media Justice to sustain our fight for prison phone justice.
Application for Review