Almost 30 years ago, Congress conducted the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in more than 60 years. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was intended to empower competition and innovation in local and long-distance telephone service. But only a few years after it was signed, these parts of the law became largely obsolete as consumer use of local and long-distance telephones diminished due to the explosive growth of the internet and wireless networks.
As someone who has worked in this policy space for decades, I wonder now if we are seeing something similar in a more specific market segment: corrections. Policymaking in the last 10 years has been squarely focused on lowering the cost of phone calls inside America’s prisons. It was an important issue for the FCC to take on, and we’re now seeing the results. Phone calls in prisons today are more affordable than ever before, and we’re even seeing states choosing to make calls free to consumers through public funding. These long overdue developments will significantly improve the lives of incarcerated individuals and their families.
However, while it’s necessary to continue focusing on prison phone rates, it seems that the greatest potential to change the lives of incarcerated individuals doesn’t come through a hardwired phone bolted to a wall. We can now provide incarcerated individuals with secure tablets. Just like how Americans across the country replaced their hardwired phone in the kitchen with mobile phones and powerful Internet voice applications, broadband technology can now provide much more than just a voice line to incarcerated Americans.
