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A federal appeals court today struck down price caps on intrastate phone calls made by prisoners. Inmates will thus have to continue paying high prices to make phone calls to family members, friends, and lawyers.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with prison phone company Global Tel*Link in its lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. But that's exactly what the FCC's current leadership wanted. The FCC imposed the prison phone rate caps during the Obama administration, but current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai instructed commission lawyers to drop their court defense of the intrastate caps.
-- submitted from IRC
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Court Wipes Out Inmate Intrastate Calling Price Caps
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Confess your sins to the Lord and you will be forgiven;
confess them to man and you will be laughed at.
-- Josh Billings
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Osamabobama on Wednesday June 14 2017, @04:46PM (2 children)
A confluence of state-granted monopoly, captive customer base, and an unsympathetic public allow these phone companies to get away with screwing their customers.
A hundred years ago or more, we had the phenomenon of 'company towns,' which were set up by a large company in charge of a remote, long-term infrastructure project. The workers would live there in company housing, but have nowhere to shop but company stores, which would charge high prices in the face of no competition. In that case, though, the workers could organize, and could inspire sympathy from the public at large. Prisoners, on the other hand, are prevented from organizing, and are literally vilified in public opinion.
In all, it's a better recipe for rent-seeking than even the teachers' union could realize.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:40PM
Ava Maria, FL
People don't get to vote. Nearly all land is owned by one company under the control of one man, with the remainder being a university that he owns 50% of. The place is surrounded by miles of swamp, so you can't trivially go to the next town over for anything.
If you annoy the company, the cops will block your access to places and will threaten you with arrest. You will surely lose your job too.
It's a planned Catholic community too, so you can't buy birth control or porn anywhere in town.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:15AM
But wait, there's more!
Those phone vendors with exclusive (monopoly) contracts pay a "commission" to the prison. If you're a warden, just award the phone contract to the company with the worst rates, and you get a stream of money for your budget independent of what the legislature doles out to you.