FCC Jacking Up Prison Phone Rates, Despite Rehabilitative Effects of Communication

Before turning our prisons into another arm of the creeping theocracy, maybe South Dakota’s prison reformers should look at simpler plans to help prisoners regain their bearings and maintain connections with the people who give their lives meaning and purpose, like cheaper phone calls.

The Federal Communications Commission is reversing itself and flouting the law by allowing prisons to jack up the charges inmates and their families must pay to telecommunicate:

Under the new rules, costs in large jails were expected to increase to 10 cents per minute, and by 18 cents per minute in jails with fewer than 50 people. But at the last minute, the FCC also added a 2 cents per minute fee “to account for correctional facilities expenses.”

The FCC is backtracking on rules adopted last year, which had capped rates between $0.06 and $0.12 per minute. Overall, rates are expected to increase by as much as 83%.

According to an analysis by the advocacy group Worth Rises, this will cost families and inmates an additional $215 million each year and result in 2.1 billion additional call minutes a year under the 2024 rules to 714 million under the 2025 rules [Joe Supan, “FCC Votes to Nearly Double Rates for Prison Phone Calls,” CNET, 2025.10.28].

Charging more for prison phone calls gets in the way of a proven plank of prison rehab:

The downstream effects of the change are alarming. The benefits of incarcerated people making phone calls are well documented: they reduce the likelihood a person will commit a crime when they’re released, promote relationships with children and improve jail safety.

“That means children who won’t be able to hear ‘I love you’ from their parents. That means spouses who won’t be able to communicate about parenting. That means people won’t be able to prepare for their release,” Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, told CNET. “It has huge implications for individuals, families, communities and public safety” [Supan, 2025.10.28].

The Urban Institute provides more information on the benefits of prison phone calls:

• Benefits for children of incarcerated parents. Positive parent-child connections help with mental and physical development in children and support their learning as adolescents. One study found 83 percent of the interviewed children of incarcerated parents reported staying in contact with their incarcerated parent (PDF) (56 percent by phone calls and videos). They reported success in their personal and professional lives as a result of their positive relationship with their incarcerated parent.
• Benefits for incarcerated family members. Frequent calls promote parent-child relationships, resulting in parents expressing better self-esteem as an active parent and displaying better behavior while in prison. Consistent phone calls with family members have also been shown to reduce anxiety and depression among incarcerated people.
• Benefits for correctional institutions and society. Within the first five years of release, incarcerated people with strong family connections are 25 percent more likely to cease criminal activity, helping to reduce jail populations and ease the burden on correctional staff [Nicole Loonstyn and Alice Galley, “Low-Cost Phone Calls Benefit Incarcerated People, Their Families, and Criminal Legal Institutions,” Urban Institute, 2023.08.30].

In 2023, California made prison phone calls free. New York is doing so this year. Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota also make prison phone calls free.

In 2024, the South Dakota Department of Corrections reported charging inmates 12 cents for each text or photo sent via tablet and charged family and friends outside 25 cents per message. DOC collected a 50% commission on electronic messages and an 18.7% commission on phone calls.

Let’s not punish prisoners’ families for trying to stay in contact with their incarcerated loved ones, and lets not hamstring a vital rehabilitative tool with unnecessary charges. Free up those phones!