FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: CJ Frogozo, 310 570 2622, CJ@FitzGibbonMedia.com

New York, NY – On Monday, civil rights group ColorOfChange.org submitted nearly 25,000 comments to the FCC, calling on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the other Commission members to take decisive action to cap interstate phone charges in the prison phone industry and protect a family’s right to connect at a reasonable fee. The FCC is currently considering capping prison call prices in line with rates available to the public.

Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org, said, “Indefensible price gouging for basic communication is a fact of life for millions of American families with loved ones who are currently incarcerated. They’re a captive audience for the phone service providers awarded monopoly contracts by prison operators, and are accordingly charged 15 times — or more — than regular phone rates.”

Robinson continued, “The burden of this explicitly exploitative practice weighs heavily on Black families, whose communities are disproportionately policed and targeted for incarceration. Maintaining family bonds while in prison is key for mitigating the countless challenges of imprisonment, and is known to greatly decrease recidivism and facilitate re-entry.”

For the millions of families with an incarcerated loved one, exorbitant prison phone rates make staying in touch a serious financial burden — and for some, just not an option. All across the country, phone providers and prisons reap profits in the millions from hiking up phone rates, while people like Martha Wright, an 86-year-old grandmother, are forced to choose between medication, food, and speaking with her grandson. Wright, whose petition for regulation of the prison phone industry is now under consideration by the FCC, has been fighting to stop phone company price gouging since 2000. Her grandson was released on parole in 2012 after nearly 20 years in prison.

One ColorOfChange member, a former prison warden said in his comments, “I know the importance of families remaining in contact, especially for elderly relatives and mothers with young children who find in-person visits expensive and exhausting. We do not need to punish loved ones for the criminal deeds of their relatives and friends.”

Public corrections agencies and private prisons strike deals that will benefit them the most, and in some states commissions on phone calls — kickbacks — can make up as much as 60% of phone charges. Prison phone corporations work in a competitive vacuum, inking deals with states, localities and private prison operators that aren’t directly impacted by calling rates, but benefit to the tune of millions of dollars annually from commissions charged on each call.

In at least Louisiana, Alaska, Nevada and Alabama, increasing these corrupt kickbacks from the phone service providers has been shown to be the determining factor in selecting winning contract bids. Thus, the cost of interstate prison phone calls deserves special scrutiny and rates should be capped immediately. ]

Melanie, a member in Georgia, said in her comments, “My son’s father has been incarcerated going on a year now and has many more to go and just over the past year I’ve spent almost 3000 (dollars) just on the phone that’s crazy and ridiculous.”

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With more than 850,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest online civil rights organization.