Inmate telephone system

[1]: 65–66, 74 In the United States, prison telecom is a $1.2 billion industry, mostly controlled by two private equity-backed companies[2][3]: 23 —Global Tel Link (GTL) with a 50% market share as of 2015.

[9] Jails and prisons tend to choose their providers based on which company will be able to pay said facility the most revenue in kickbacks.

[11][12] Mobile, Alabama-based GTL was a subsidiary of GTEL Holdings in 2009 and offered "inmate communications, investigative, facility management, visitation, payment and deposit, and content solutions".

[14] Rates for the telephone calls from prisons and jails can be shockingly high especially for low income families who are trying to keep in touch with their loved ones.

[15] On August 9, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a report on the high cost of inmate calling services, with proposed reforms.

[18] The proposal was approved in 2014; a cap was also implemented to reduce the high long-distance charges that inmates incurred to eleven cents per minute,[19] so that a fifteen-minute call should not cost more than $4.

According to the FCC, Global Tel-Link had been charging as much as $17.30 for such calls under contracts with facilities in Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota, which resulted in "unreasonably high" phone bills for inmates' families.

"[24] In November 2016, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a stay, requested by Securus, to block a proposed compromise by the FCC to set the rate cap to 13¢ to 31¢ per-minute on inter and intrastate calls.

In the wake of the stay, Ajit Pai criticized Democrats for appealing and the courts for intervening on ICS rate regulations.

[25] The two ICS providers, GTL and CenturyLink, asked for a delay in another FCC hearing in Washington, that was set for February 6, 2017.

Commissioners Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn, and Jessica Rosenworcel, who were on the August 2013 Commission when the reform report was adopted, had dissented in 2013, and were likely to find for GTL and CenturyLink.

This took many years of struggle and persuasion led by many people who are directly affected by the costs and rates of prison and jail phone calls to stay in contact with their loved ones.