Why the Federal Communications Commission decided it had the right to cap telephone rates for this state's inmates is anybody's guess--if anybody was guessing that government always thinks it knows best. As if the apparatchiks making work for themselves in Washington, D.C., know all, including what goes into prisons and phone service.
But, mirabile dictu, a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington has decided that the FCC overstepped its authority when it cut--and capped--telephone rates for prisoners. Nine attorneys general from various parts of the Union, including Leslie Rutledge of Batesville and this state's AG office, sued to get to this point. Which sometimes has to be done when it concerns the federal government vs. the people.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson may have put it best when he described the overreach: "The court rightly returned the pricing decision to the free market, and turned negotiations over to the states and private industry."
Prisoners in Arkansas already pay a lower rate--sometimes a much lower rate--for phone calls than prisoners elsewhere. The paper said this state charges inmates 12 cents a minute with a $3 connection fee. For a 15-minute call, that's $4.80. But, for example, Minnesota charges as much as $6.45 for a similar 15-minute call.
And the prices for those phone calls in Arkansas, according to those in the know, go down each time the board negotiates a new contract.
A few points: First, and maybe foremost, the prison system isn't in the business of keeping prisoners from contacting family. "One of our goals," says Dina Tyler, deputy director of the Community Correction Department, "is to help relationships with families stay strong while someone is locked up." Otherwise, a prison isn't part rehabilitation. It's just a box. So one can assume that charging a (low) price for phone calls isn't the department's way of punishing inmates.
That said, Point No. 2: Prison isn't supposed to be pleasant, and folks inside aren't supposed to have all the freedoms of those on the outside.
Point No. 3: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made this decision. That panel isn't exactly a den of right-wing hacks looking to impose conservative ideas on an unwilling nation.
Telephones in prisons must be equipped for monitoring and recording. That costs extra. Contracts with phone companies must be negotiated to include that. And, yes, the prisons are said to make money from phone calls, but Ms. Tyler says the money "goes back into the system to make the standard of living [in prison] better."
A commissioner for the FCC--in this day when everything is either the worst ever or the best ever, and there's nothing in-between--calls the court's ruling "the greatest form of regulatory injustice I have seen in my 18 years as a regulator in the communications space." What, not just the second greatest?
One would be forgiven for thinking that the next decision that goes against this commissioner will also be termed the Greatest Injustice Ever. That's the new normal in Washington, D.C.
What's not the new normal in Washington, D.C., is this administration. And say what you will of the president's tweets and claims and hyperbole, he's staffing his administration with some real leaders.
President Trump appointed Ajit Pai as the chairman of the FCC back in February. Soon after, the lawyers for the FCC said it would no longer fight in the courts to fight the states on this matter. Or, as Mr. Pai put it this week: "The D.C. Circuit agreed with my position that the FCC exceeded its authority ... . I plan to work with my colleagues at the Commission, Congress and all stakeholders to address the problem of high inmate calling rates in a lawful manner."
What a pleasant change.
Editorial on 06/21/2017