The Louisiana Public Service Commission will take a deeper look into regulations on prison and jail phone calls on Wednesday (Nov. 20), following new rate caps that the Federal Communications Commission set in July for calls with incarcerated people. 

District 5 Commissioner Foster Campbell, based in Shreveport, requested prison and jail telecommunications companies make presentations to the commission on implementing the new FCC rules – which resulted from a 2023 federal law that extended the agency’s power to regulate jail and prison call rates.  

The new rules, passed earlier this year, cap audio calls in prisons and large jails (with populations of 1,000 or more) at 6 cents per minute — well below the state average of about 14 cents per minute for prisons and 20 cents for local jails —  and limit the amount of the rate that telecommunications providers can pay to the facilities to 2 cents per minute or less.  

Prison telecommunications providers have objected to the caps, and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has filed a federal lawsuit, along with two other states, seeking to overturn the FCC decision.

In an interview Monday (Nov. 18) District 3 Commissioner Davante Lewis – who represents New Orleans and Baton Rouge  – said the commission had not received confirmation from any prison telecommunications providers that they would be sending representatives to Wednesday’s meeting. 

Lewis said while the commission is prepared to review presentations on the prison and jail call rates, there is no plan to vote on reducing the fees. Such a vote is not on Wednesday’s agenda. Under the state’s Open Meetings law, in order to take up consideration of new rates at Wednesday’s meeting, all five members of the Public Service Commission would have to agree to take a vote. 

Lewis has supported the push to eliminate phone call fees across the state’s jails and prisons.

“What’s an affordable rate for New Jersey may not be so affordable for Louisiana.” Lewis said. “Louisiana is the second-poorest state in the nation and the most incarcerated state in the nation. We have to think differently and maybe go above and beyond the FCC rules to deal with the stark realities that face us on the ground. … The FCC is creating the ceiling, but they are not creating the floor.” 

In Louisiana, 6 cents per minute is far below the average rate charged by telecommunications contractors for jails and prisons. According to a 2022 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, 15-minute calls from state prisons cost $2.10, or 14 cents per minute. The report found that rates at local jails can be as high as 25 cents per minute for in-state calls.

Louisiana, other states sue over FCC rule

Lewis said he expects the companies to oppose the FCC’s rules. 

“It seems they are doing everything they can to fight this,” he said. 

In October, the FCC denied a petition from Securus Technologies, the company that provides telecommunications services to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections facilities, to stay the commission’s order regarding the lowered rates. 

Securus argued that the new rate limits did not comply with a congressional requirement for prison telecommunications companies to be “fairly compensated,” claiming it would be subjected to “irreparable harm in lost revenue and compliance costs.” Securus argued it was “impossible” for providers to meet the compliance deadline, which is January 1, 2025 for most contractors.

A representative for Securus Technologies did not respond to requests for comment. 

Ken Pastorick, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said the department plans to comply with the new FCC rate caps. The corrections agency will not be presenting at the Wednesday PSC meeting, Pastorick said.

On Nov. 6, attorneys general from Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana sued FCC in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming that the FCC’s order to lower rate caps “is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion,” and that it “violates the Constitution, is in excess of statutory authority, and is otherwise contrary to law and unsupported by substantial evidence.”

Other petitioners included the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and multiple local sheriffs. Representatives for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrell and the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association did not respond to requests for comment.

Republican attorneys general in 14 other states are separating suing the FCC over the same order.

‘Money should not be an issue’

Two Louisiana-based criminal justice reform groups, Promise of Justice Initiative and Voice of the Experienced, along with the national nonprofit Worth Rises, will also present to public service commissioners Wednesday. 

Sara Gozalo, a storyteller at Promise of Justice, said in an interview that making prison and jail calls free is in the interest of legislators who have been passing laws to lock up people at younger ages or for longer terms, referring to recent tough-on-crime laws that critics say will increase the state’s incarcerated population. 

She cited studies that show strong communication between incarcerated people and their loved ones lowers recidivism and can reduce violence inside prisons and jails. 

“If the argument here is our safety — people being in touch with their kids when they’re incarcerated leads to safety,” Gozalo said.

Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, said the organization has had the most success with making phone calls free in other states by pushing for local jails to do it first, creating a ripple effect and generating bipartisan support in some jurisdictions. 

“We don’t need to look at this as a partisan issue, but instead something that hasn’t yet been done” Tylek said. “Our first intention is to start with Orleans Parish because we know the sheriff is amenable.” 

In her successful 2021 campaign for the office, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson blasted the high costs of jail calls, saying she would work to provide free phone service. The office has yet to eliminate charges entirely, but recently announced a new policy that will allow detainees one free 15-minute audio call per day and one free video call per week. The policy is part of a new contract with Smart Communications that will lower the per-minute cost to 14 cents. The jail is also expected to distribute 1,400 tablets to detainees this month.

Tylek encouraged Hutson to fulfill her initial campaign promise. 

“Let’s not all of a sudden bastardize what the actual promise was – the promise was fully free communication,” she said. 

Casey McGee, the OPSO’s chief communications officer, said that the agency is aiming to incorporate free phone calls into its budget by 2026 but will make an informal ask to City Council this year to fund the calls. 

Hutson said last month, following a budget presentation to the New Orleans City Council, that making calls free would cost the sheriff’s office $2 million.

“OPSO was in a position that required us to press forward with new telecommunications systems and equipment right away to accommodate attorney visits, medical visits and family reunification efforts, so we moved forward with the current process with the understanding that by 2026 we would need to have free phone calls incorporated into the budget,” McGee said in a text message.

Because the Orleans Parish jail contract was signed in May, nearly two months before the FCC voted to adopt new rate caps, the sheriff’s office will have a one-year-grace period before it has to comply with the federal rule. 

Still, Tylek said local agencies can usually renegotiate jail communications contracts at any time — and that municipal governments can get significant rate reductions when taking on the costs of the calls. Worth Rises, which has gathered information on jail and prison call contracts across the country, has found that it would cost a city with a jail population similar to that of New Orleans about $285,000 a year for tablet calls.

People incarcerated in the Orleans Justice Center paid more than $1 million in phone rates in 2023, according to analysis of documents for the agency’s proposed 2025 budget. 

Gozalo said allowing telecommunications companies to charge high rates for prison and jail calls is a way to further punish incarcerated people. 

“It becomes a way for the legislature to be hard on incarcerated people and their families,” she said. 

Promise of Justice, Voice of the Experienced and Worth Rises all say state and local governments should pick up the tab. 

“If these elected officials care about safety, then money should not be an issue,” Gozalo said. “It should not be on the backs of people who have loved ones incarcerated.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately reported that the organization Worth Rises seeks to lower prison and jail phone rates. In fact, the group is pushing prisons and jails to offer calls at no cost.

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Before joining Verite, Bobbi-Jeanne Misick reported on people behind bars in immigration detention centers and prisons in the Gulf South as a senior reporter for the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration...