Public Comment
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United StatesCriminal JusticeSocial Welfare

The FCC regulates Incarcerated People’s Communications Services, including audio and video calls from correctional facilities. In a 2025 order, the FCC established new interim rate caps, with different caps for prisons and jails of different sizes. Supporters of strict caps say high call costs punish families and make reentry harder. Correctional facilities and providers argue that calling systems involve security, monitoring, infrastructure, and facility costs that have to be paid somehow. Families should not have to pay unreasonable rates just to stay connected, but the rule also has to cover the real cost of secure systems.

How should the FCC regulate phone and video-call costs for people in prisons and jails?

Overall results

1
53% support · excluded by 8%
7

Small jails may face costs that large state systems can spread across many more calls.

7

Facility size, technology, staffing, and contract terms vary, so one national price may be too blunt.

2
52% support · excluded by 4%
7

Federal regulators should not micromanage every correctional contract when facilities are responsible for security.

3
48% support · excluded by 8%
7

A short call should not become a luxury item for low-income families already under stress.

7

Children and spouses did not commit a crime, and they should not be priced out of basic family contact.

4
47% support · excluded by 12%
7

A defensible cap should be based on audited costs, not pressure from either companies or activists.

7

The FCC should distinguish real security costs from commissions and markups that mainly raise revenue.

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Anonymous

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