Price of US prison calls to plummet after regulators slash sky-high phone rates

[Recursion]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/regulators-slash-price-prison-calls-fcc

Federal regulators moved to cap the costs of prison phone calls on Thursday in a move to end a system that has driven the price of a call as high as $17 a minute.

At a meeting in Washington the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to cap rates on inmate calls made from one state to another. Prison calls have been driven sky high by fees charged by telephone companies, commissions and fees charged by prisons to monitor calls and for other services.

One FCC commissioner, Mignon Clyburn, said that US has “the regrettable distinction of [having] the highest incarceration rate in the word”. She quoted Nelson Mandela saying that no one knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.

“Incarceration is a family matter, an economic matter, a societal matter. The greatest impact of an inmate’s sentence is often on the loved ones left behind,” said Clyburn.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. This is very important to so many people, when I first heard about excessive prisoner call rates

I didn't think the person telling me about it could possibly be correct the rates were so high....

[Recursion]

2. I could because my uncle was locked up and I had to send him money to call

At that point he was a meth fiend so I didn't entirely believe him on how expensive it was, but the bureau of prisons actually had a fact sheet for exactly my skepticism.

This was a complete inexcusable racket, and I'm so glad it's starting to end.