Reduction of Inmate Telephone Rates

By: Foster Campbell
Louisiana Public Service Commissioner

After years of paying excessive rates to speak by telephone with their family members in Louisiana jails and prisons, the 40,000 families of Louisiana inmates will soon receive relief, thanks to Congress and federal regulators.

Effective January 1, 2025, “just and reasonable” charges for calls made to incarcerated people across the nation will be set by the Federal Communications Commission. On that date, calls to and from jails and prisons in Louisiana will drop from 25 cents a minute to as low as 6 cents. That is a welcome change, said Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell. “Louisiana families have for years been charged outrageously high rates and unauthorized fees added to bills,” Campbell said. “That is because monopoly telephone companies formed an alliance with Louisiana sheriffs and prison officials to take advantage of people with no political power.” Hearing stories like Louisiana’s from throughout the country, Congress in 2022 unanimously passed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act. The law, named after the crusading grandmother of a Virginia inmate, directed the FCC to set “just and reasonable” rates for calls to and from correctional facilities nationwide. The act added “intrastate” calls – those within state boundaries – to the FCC’s existing jurisdiction over interstate calls.

At the LPSC, Campbell conducted an 18-month investigation of inmate telephone rates in 2011-12, culminating in a reform order enacted in December 2012. Campbell was supported at the LPSC by inmate advocates and clergy from Catholic, Methodist, Episcopal and other faiths. The Campbell investigation found that rates charged in Louisiana for inmate telephone calls were an average of 30 times higher than calls outside correctional facilities. Campbell’s reforms, strongly opposed by Louisiana sheriffs and the state Department of Corrections, dropped rates an average of 25 percent and eliminated a host of fees illegally added to bills by providers. Though the reforms were unanimously adopted by LPSC members in 2012, a change in the makeup of the five-member commission in January 2013 gave opponents an opening, and they managed to undo the reforms just two months later. “Inmate telephone calls have long been a scandal,” Campbell said. “You have an entrenched group of special interests taking advantage of probably the least politically influential people in this country: inmates and their families. “That is why the unanimous support of Congress for the nationwide reform and the FCC’s resulting action are so significant.” Campbell said he wrote the FCC this week urging them to “stringently” regulate new video communications services. He said he’s asking the LPSC to review the cost of new video services in jails and determine if Louisiana should set rates that apply until the FCC sets national rates for such communication between inmates and their families. Campbell has asked all inmate telecommunications providers operating in Louisiana to attend the October 16th LPSC meeting, to be held in Plaquemines Parish, to answer questions about their contracts with Louisiana jails and prisons