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Incarcerated People’s Communications Services, Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act; Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services, FCC WC Docket Nos. 23-62 and 12-375, Ex Parte Submission of t...

Publication • April 29, 2024

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors

, National Institute of Corrections, Model Practices for Parents in Prisons and Jails: Reducing Barriers to Family Connections at 59 (July 2019). 7 The Commission has recognized that providers of telephone ...

Florida County Makes Free Jail Phone Calls Available

Article • April 1, 2024 • from PLN April, 2024

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Securus

Florida County Makes Free Jail Phone Calls Available by On October 1, 2023, phone calls became free for some 860 jail detainees at the jail in Florida’s Alachua County, whose Board of Commissioners voted for the change six months earlier. That brought the cost from 21 cents per minute to …

Compensation Awarded to California Non-Profit and HRDC Officials for Efforts Reducing Prison Phone Rates

Article • December 1, 2023 • from PLN December, 2023

Filed under: Advocacy, Telephone Rates, 18-B Compensation

the scope of PUC’s rulemaking beyond “text telephones” for prisoners with hearing-related disabilities to include VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services. When seeking compensation ...

Minnesota Makes All Calls Free in Prisons and Jails

Article • November 15, 2023 • from PLN November, 2023

Filed under: Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Family, Securus, Global Tel*Link Corp

Minnesota Makes All Calls Free in Prisons and Jails by On May 19, 2023, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed into law SF 2909, the Judiciary and Public Safety budget bill. Introduced by two Democratic state lawmakers, Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten and Rep. Esther Agbaje, the measure made calls free …

Colorado One of Four States Making Phone Calls Free for Prisoners

Article • October 15, 2023 • from PLN October, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates

Colorado One of Four States Making Phone Calls Free for Prisoners by On June 7, 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed House Bill (HB) 23-1133, requiring the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to provide, administer and – most importantly – not to profit from communications services used by prisoners. …

As e-Messaging Takes Off in U.S. Prisons, Complaints Over Service and Costs Multiply

Article • September 15, 2023 • from PLN September, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Electronically Stored Information, Prison Mail

As e-Messaging Takes Off in U.S. Prisons, Complaints Over Service and Costs Multiply by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Historically, prisoners have been largely left out of the technology wave changing the way the rest of the world communicates and does business. It wasn’t until March 2009 that the …

Sheriffs Offered Caribbean Cruises and Florida Retreats As Part Of Jail Telecom Contracts

Article • September 15, 2023 • from PLN September, 2023

Filed under: Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephones, Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors

Sheriffs Offered Caribbean Cruises and Florida Retreats As Part Of Jail Telecom Contracts by Hayden Betts by Hayden Betts Members of five sheriff’s offices across the country were offered cruises from “Tampa Bay to the Caribbean” as part of jail telecommunications contracts with the vendor Smart Communications, according to documents …

Prolonged COVID-19 Visitation Restrictions Net Georgia Jails Over $1.5 Million in Telecom Kickbacks

Article • August 15, 2023 • from PLN August, 2023

Filed under: COVID-19, Cost of Prison Systems, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Video Visitation

Prolonged COVID-19 Visitation Restrictions Net Georgia Jails Over $1.5 Million in Telecom Kickbacks by Jordan Arizmendi by Jordan Arizmendi According to a report by the Georgia Current on April 14, 2023, jails in several of the state’s coastal counties were still profiting by extending COVID-19 visitation bans, forcing detainees and …

Prison Profiteer Who Chairs Christian Seminary Board Called Not Very ‘Christlike’

Article • August 15, 2023 • from PLN August, 2023

Filed under: Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Fraud and Deceit

Prison Profiteer Who Chairs Christian Seminary Board Called Not Very ‘Christlike’ by Kevin Bliss by Kevin W. Bliss Members of Princeton Theological Seminarians for Peace and Justice (SPJ) sent a letter on March 14, 2023, calling for resignation of seminary Board of Trustees Chairman Michael Fisch. After learning Fisch’s hedge …

Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act-Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services, 2023

Brief • July 26, 2023

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

, as well as “differences in costs” based on facility size or “other characteristics.”7 It also allows the Commission to “use industry-wide average costs of telephone service and advanced communications ...

FCC Granted Broader Authority to Regulate Prisoner Call Costs

Article • July 15, 2023 • from PLN July, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Global Tel*Link Corp

FCC Granted Broader Authority to Regulate Prisoner Call Costs by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On March 16, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to begin rule-making to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. Named after a determined woman who tirelessly campaigned to lower …

California Appeals Court Affirms Rate Caps and Fee Limitations for Prison Telecoms

Article • July 15, 2023 • from PLN July, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors, Securus

Court of Appeal Makes Its Ruling To begin, the Court noted that the state Supreme Court said in The Ponderosa Telephone Co. v. Public Utilities Com., 36 Cal.App.5th 999 (2019), that there is a &ldquo ...

FCC Requires Prison Telecoms to Provide Services for Deaf Prisoners

Article • July 15, 2023 • from PLN July, 2023

Filed under: Deaf Prisoners, Americans with Disabilities Act, Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors

calls, which allow direct communication between two signing people. It also covers video relay services, a three-way system that allows a deaf user to sign to a speaking interpreter. Captioning telephones ...

CA Utilities Commission Fee Award 6-19-23

Publication • June 19, 2023

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

communications services serving people with disabilities. As discussed above, IPCS providers providing such services are telephone corporations and public utilities and as such are subject to our jurisdiction ...

Telecoms Exploiting Legal Loopholes to Price Gouge Prisoners and Their Families

Article • May 1, 2023 • from PLN May, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors, Securus, Global Tel*Link Corp

Telecoms Exploiting Legal Loopholes to Price Gouge Prisoners and Their Families by Jacob Barrett by Jacob Barrett According to a report published by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) on December 15, 2022, for-profit telecom companies are using loopholes in the law to price-gouge prisoners and their families on the cost …

California Makes Calls Free for State Prisoners and Juvenile Detainees, Prohibits Telecom Kickbacks to Prisons and Jails

Article • April 1, 2023 • from PLN April, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Juvenile Offenses/Offenders, Kickback Scheme

California Makes Calls Free for State Prisoners and Juvenile Detainees, Prohibits Telecom Kickbacks to Prisons and Jails by Benjamin Tschirhart by Benjamin Tschirhart On September 29, 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed S.B. 1008 into law, barring government agencies in the state from collecting any part of the revenue …

FTC-Unfair of Deceptive Fees ANPR, Feb. 2023

Publication • February 8, 2023

Filed under: Money/Property, Telephone Rates

Fed. Comm’cns Comm’n, “Telephone Service for Incarcerated Individuals” (Dec. 20, 2022), available at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/telephone-service-incarcerated-individuals; see also Wagner ...

Linear v. Securus Technologies Dba Jpay LLC, WA, Statement of Claims, Unfair Charges, 2022

Brief • December 30, 2022

Filed under: JPay, Inc., Telephone Rates

By: s/ Roger Townsend Roger M. Townsend, WSBA # 25525 Mynor R. Lopez, WSBA #59918 1000 Second Avenue, Suite 3670 Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 652-8660 Telephone (206) 652-8290 Facsimile bdonckers@bjtlegal.com ...

Maine Caps Price of Phone Calls in State Prisons and Jails

Article • October 31, 2022 • from PLN November, 2022

Filed under: Telephone Rates

free weekly minutes for attorney calls and 30 more minutes for other calls, anytime their account balance falls below ten dollars. Randall Liberty, DOC’s ironically named commissioner, said ...

Prison Phone Rights- Testimony of Paul Wright-Sept. 2022

Publication • September 19, 2022

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates, Telephone Monitoring

“stands as a 9 sharp contrast to traditional voice-only calling services, where the return on correctional facility 10 investments is largely limited to the cost and reliability of telephone calls ...