SEATTLE - Texas inmates will see the fees paid to make calls slashed under a new federal regulation approved by the Federal Communications Commission, bringing down rates that averaged 23 cents a minute for Texas jail inmates to prices as low as 5 cents per minute.
The FCC voted on July 18 to approve regulations that cap the price of inmate phone and video calls. It is set to take effect starting next year. Prices and caps differ throughout the state and they are dependent on prison size as well as differences between state and local rules. The new regulations will be implemented in stages and people involved hope that they will be in effect for all correctional facilities all across the country by April 1, 2026 at the latest.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called the high rates as "unconscionable," adding that sometimes a single phone call could cost the equivalent to an unlimited monthly cell plan. The FCC said that with the new caps in place, prisoners, friends, families and inmates could save about $386 million each year. Rosenworcel also added that regular contact with family can reduce chances that inmates return to crime after they are released.
The new caps set by the FCC are based on jail size, with lower ceilings at larger jails and prisons. Prisons and jails with an average daily population of 1,000 or more, compliance is required by Jan. 1, 2025. Smaller jails with fewer than 1,000 inmates must comply by April 1, 2025.
"The FCC's order is a massive victory for incarcerated people, their families, and their allies who have spent decades fighting the exploitative prison telecom industry," the Prison Policy Initiative said.
In 2023, Congress passed legislation to give the FCC broad authority to cut inmate calls costs after caps set by the agency were reversed by the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia in 2017.
Drew Willey, a Houston attorney who has been a long-time advocate for free phone calls for inmates in Harris County Jail, said that when he started his advocacy in 2017, the price for a 20-minute phone call was $14.99 in Harris County.
"For far too long, too many families were forced to spend outrageous amounts of money simply to speak on the phone with their incarcerated loved ones, denying children the comfort of hearing their parents' voices," said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who pushed for the legislation in Congress.
Advocates say that their goal is free calls for Texas inmates. As of December 2023, only five states across the country allowed free phone calls for inmates (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota and Massachusetts). Lawmakers in the state of Washington have also started to push for free phone calls for inmates, with Sen. Drew Hansen introducing the Connecting Families Act, which would offer free access to phone calls to the roughly 13,000 prisoners in the state.
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