Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services

In this document, the Commission continues to comprehensively reform inmate calling services rates and charges to ensure just and reasonable rates for interstate and international inmate calling services. In response to a directive from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Commission determined that, except in limited circumstances, it is impractical to separate out the intrastate and intrastate components of ancillary service charges imposed in connection with inmate calling services. For the limited circumstances in which the components may be distinguished, inmate service providers are subject to the Commission's ancillary service charge rules, which constrain providers to only five specific types of ancillary service charges and related fee caps. The Commission also reinstated its rule prohibiting providers from marking up mandatory taxes or fees and adopted rule changes in response to the D.C. Circuit that clarify that the Commission's inmate calling service rate and fee cap rules apply only to interstate and international inmate calling services.