FCC's Prison Phone Rate Caps Were Delayed and Then Raised by 83%, Keeping Families Paying Up to $1/Minute

Incarcerated people and their families pay up to $1 per minute for phone calls — rates that can reach $5 for a 2-minute call — charged by a handful of telecom companies (primarily Securus Technologies and Global Tel*Link/ViaPath) that hold monopoly contracts with correctional facilities. Why it matters: families cannot maintain the regular contact that research shows reduces recidivism by up to 13%, so children of incarcerated parents (2.7 million children in the U.S.) lose consistent connection with their parent, so family bonds deteriorate during sentences averaging 2-5 years, so returning citizens face weakened support networks at release which is the single strongest predictor of successful reentry, so recidivism increases and taxpayers pay $35,000-$132,000 per year to re-incarcerate people who might have stayed out with stronger family ties. The structural root cause is that correctional facilities receive revenue-sharing kickbacks (often 40-60% commissions) from telecom providers, creating a perverse incentive for facilities to award contracts to the highest bidder rather than the lowest-cost provider, and the FCC's July 2024 unanimous vote to cap rates was postponed in 2025, with revised caps actually raising prices by up to 83% compared to the originally announced rates.