Commission Action Prior to the Martha Wright-Reed Act
Beginning in 2013, the Commission began taking a number of steps in WC Docket No. 12-375 to address the high rates paid by incarcerated persons and their loved ones for interstate calling services. In the 2013 ICS Order, the Commission adopted interim interstate rate caps and adopted the Commission’s first mandatory data collection regarding ICS, requiring all providers of those services to submit data on their underlying costs of service. It also adopted an annual reporting obligation requiring providers to provide specific information on their operations, including their rates and ancillary service charges.
In the 2015 ICS Order, in light of evidence of continued “egregiously high” rates, the Commission adopted a comprehensive framework for regulating rates and charges for both interstate and intrastate calling services for incarcerated people, re-adopting the 2013 interim interstate rate caps until the new rate caps became effective, and extending them to intrastate calls. The Commission also limited permissible ancillary service charges (separate fees that are not included in the per-minute rates assessed for individual inmate calling services calls) to only five types—(1) Fees for Single Call and Related Services; (2) Automated Payment Fees; (3) Third-Party Financial Transaction Fees; (4) Live Agent Fees; and (5) Paper Bill/Statement Fees—and capped the charges for each type. The Commission further concluded that ICS providers’ payments to correctional facilities from part of the providers’ ICS revenues, commonly referred to as “site commissions,” did not constitute a legitimate cost to the providers of providing ICS and accordingly excluded site commission payments from the cost data the Commission used in setting rate caps. Several parties appealed the Commission’s 2015 ICS Order, as well as a subsequent Commission Order on Reconsideration. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit addressed the appeal of the 2015 ICS Order in its 2017 decision in GTL v. FCC, where it vacated and remanded portions of the 2015 ICS Order. The GTL decision resulted in the continued applicability of the 2013 interim rate capsto ICS.
In the 2020 Order on Remand, the Commission addressed the D.C. Circuit’s directive that the Commission consider on remand whether ancillary service charges can be segregated into interstate and intrastate components for the purpose of excluding the intrastate components from the reach of the Commission’s rules. The Commission found that ancillary service charges generally are jurisdictionally mixed and cannot be practicably segregated into interstate and intrastate components except where, at the time a charge is imposed and the consumer accepts the charge, the call to which the service is ancillary is clearly an intrastate call. As a result, the Commission concluded that ICS providers are generally prohibited from imposing any ancillary service charges other than the five permitted by the Commission’s rules, and providers are generally prohibited from imposing charges in excess of the Commission’s applicable ancillary service fee caps. In the 2020 ICS Notice, the Commission sought comment on additional steps to address unreasonable rates and charges.
In the 2021 ICS Order, the Commission reformed the treatment of site commissions, set new interim interstate rate caps for prisons and jails with average daily populations of 1,000 or more incarcerated people, and capped international calling rates for the first time, among other actions. In the 2021 ICS Order, the Commission also sought to improve the data it collected on calling services for incarcerated people as part of its efforts to set reasonable permanent rate caps. It delegated authority to WCB and OEA to establish a Third Mandatory Data Collection to collect uniform cost data to use in setting rate caps that more closely reflect inmate service providers’ costs of providing service at correctional facilities.
In September 2022, the Commission issued the 2022 ICS Order, which adopted requirements to improve access to communications services for incarcerated people with communication disabilities and targeted reforms to lessen the financial burden on incarcerated people and their loved ones when using calling services. That item included a Further Notice seeking additional public input and evidence relating to further reforms concerning incarcerated people with communication disabilities and providers’ rates, charges, and practices in connection with interstate and international calling services.
Earlier Notices and Orders
Commission
ICS Order on Reconsideration (2016)
Second Report and Order and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2015)
Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2014)
Protective Order (2013)
Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2013)
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2012)
Wireline Competition Bureau
WCB Adopts Order Denying Objections to Blocking Under the Protective Order (2016)
WCB Adopts Securus No Blocking Order (2013)