The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted this week to lower the cost of keeping in touch with the incarcerated.
"The Federal Communications Commission today voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades," the agency announced in a Thursday press release. "The new call rates will be $0.06 per minute for prisons and large jails, $0.07 for medium jails, $0.09 for small jails, and $0.12 for very small jails, and as low as $0.11/minute for video calls—with a requirement that per-minute rates be offered." As a result, "the cost of a 15-minute phone call will drop to $0.90 from as much as $11.35 in large jails and, in small jails, to $1.35 from $12.10."
