Time Served Collaborates with FCC to Host Public Commentary Event
Shirene Hansotia
Feb 1, 2024
Your voice matters! Twenty years ago, a grandmother in Washington, DC wrote a letter to the FCC requesting they look into the steep cost of prison phone calls. At the time, Ms. Wright-Reed was struggling with many serious underlying health issues and subsisting on a meager budget. She faced difficult decisions, often forsaking paying for all of her necessary medications in order to have the funds to speak to her incarcerated grandson.
Last year, legislation was passed in her name. The recently adopted Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022 directs the FCC to adopt just and reasonable in-state communication rates between incarcerated people and their loved ones.
On February 1, 2024, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and former FCC acting chairwoman and member Mignon Clyburn traveled to North Charleston, South Carolina to hold a listening session, gathering testimony from four formerly incarcerated men and women with lived experience trying to maintain familial relationships by phone while incarcerated. These four participants spoke eloquently about their experiences in federal and state prisons, struggling to maintain contact with loved ones, and often having to choose between food or phone calls. They also described frequent dropped calls and a severe shortage of phones within prison facilities, making communication very difficult.
"For too many years, families and friends of incarcerated people have struggled with the outrageous costs charged for communicating with their loved ones,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel. “The FCC has long fought this problem using our existing rules, but they limited us to regulating interstate rates. Thanks to Congress and the President, this new law gives the FCC new authority to oversee state rates. I hope my colleagues will support me in taking the next steps to lowering the cost of prison phone bills so that incarcerated people can affordably stay connected with families and loved ones.”
The FCC is still accepting public comment regarding incarcerated people's communication services. To file an express comment:
Indicate the docket number of the proceeding as "23-62" and "12-374"
Add your name, basic contact information, and type your brief comments.
Check the box at the bottom of the form acknowledging that you are filing a comment into an official FCC proceeding.
After submitting your comments, press "Continue to review screen," review your filing, and then press "Submit."
Time Served was grateful to collaborate with the FCC and #Turn90 in bringing voices to speak about the high costs of communication in prisons in South Carolina.