Thread by @BiancaTylek

We ran the numbers and it's sad.

On Oct 28, the FCC is set to rollback regulations — passed unanimously last year — and allow predatory correctional telecoms and greedy sheriffs get back to business as usual exploiting families. Here's what to know. THREAD

In 2024, the FCC unanimously passed regulations that set "just and reasonable" rate caps for prison and jail phone calls. The new rate caps more than halved previous caps and were projected to save families impacted by incarceration $550 million annually.

docs.fcc.gov/public/attachm…

After months of lobbying by correctional telecoms and sheriffs who were set to lose their precious kickbacks, the FCC suspend the implementation of the rules in July 2025. Just two months later, it released new regulations that rollback the 2024 rules.

broadbandbreakfast.com/fcc-to-revisit…

The new rules drastically increase rate caps, with the prison cap going from $0.06 to $0.11 per minute. To arrive at these new figures, the FCC reversed its prior position that prohibited providers from charging incarcerated people and their families for their own surveillance.

To start, the weighted average phone call rate across all prisons is currently $0.049 per minute, lower than the 2024 rate cap of $0.06 per minute and not even half of the revised 2025 rate cap of $0.11 per minute.

Only three states — FL, KY, and OK — currently have rates above the new rate cap, meaning that 94% of prison systems are at or below the revised rate cap. But more importantly, 76% of prison systems would already be compliant with the 2024 rate cap today.

In fact, a dozen state prison systems had already complied with the 2024 regulations before the FCC paused implementation; and despite the pause, the majority have maintained their new lower rates, contrary to assertions that these new rates are untenable for the industry.

45 prison systems would've been impacted by the 2024 rules. Now, just 19 prison systems will be. As a result, the portion of the prison population that will experience relief has dropped from 78% to 42%, with 446k fewer people in prison, and their families, benefiting.

In all, the revised rules will deliver $215 million less in financial relief to families each year. The largest drop is felt by those in prisons (-49%) as well as the largest and smallest jails (-29% in jails over 1,000, -27% in jails over 350, and -27% in jails under 50).

Most importantly, the new rules will severely dampen the increase in communication that the regulation of the industry intended to generate, from 2.1 billion additional call minutes a year to just 714 million, a drop of 66%.

The FCC is being manipulated by a predatory industry that is transparently colluding with state and local agencies vexed about an impending loss of revenue they should have never been privy to but collected for decades.

Correctional telecom providers and their partner agencies have threatened to deny incarcerated people communication services if their unjust financial windfall is not restored in an effort to suggest that the industry cannot survive the 2024 regulations.

So far only one rural jail has taken such action and, despite the suspension of the rules, it has not returned communications services to its population.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

The data released by @WorthRises today demonstrates the absurdity of this claim. Nearly all prison systems, which hold more than two-thirds of our nation’s incarcerated population, are already at or below the revised rate cap. Many are already compliant with the 2024 rate caps.

Rolling back such important and well-reasoned regulations to address a singular uncompromising jail or concerns that have yet to materialize undermines over a decade of the FCC's work in setting the just and reasonable rates mandated by Congress by the Martha Wright Reed Act.

Families impacted by incarceration deserve real relief — not regulatory backpedaling. The FCC cannot let this predatory industry manipulate the rulemaking process with its audacious claim that it is protecting communication services for incarcerated people.

It should listen to those who rely on these services for connection, support, and survival and their allies — nearly 15,000 of which have filed comments opposing any delay or rollback to the 2024 rules. We'll be asking Commissioners to meet with them.

davisvanguard.org/2025/09/oppose…

Read our full data analysis and press statement at . Follow @WorthRises for more on this.worthrises.org/pressreleases/…