Furious at the FCC, Arkansas jail cancels inmate phone calls rather than lower rates [View all]

MAR 18, 2025 3:08 PM

Sheriff John Montgomery of Baxter County, Arkansas, isn't going to take it anymore—if by "it" you mean "having to offer lower phone call rates to incarcerated inmates." Noting that such phone calls are "not required to be provided by law," Montgomery is ending all inmate phone calls on March 30, 2025.

The cause of Montgomery's wrath, and of his March 30 date, is the Federal Communications Commission, which set an April 1, 2025, deadline for smaller jails to lower the obscene rates of inmate phone calls. (Larger jails had to comply in January.) According to the FCC, 15-minute phone calls to inmates could run as much as $12.10 in these smaller jails. The Commission now demands that such calls cost no more than $1.35. (You can read the new rate schedule here.)

The rates are high in part because extra security is required for inmate communications services, but the system had also become a way for local agencies to make money by charging vendors a "site commission payment." In this model, vendors might be selected based less on what was good for security and for inmate families and more on how much cash the vendor could funnel to the jail. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks even referred to these payments as "kickbacks."

In 2024, the FCC finally took a hatchet to this entire system. The Commission slashed the fees paid by inmates, it banned all sorts of nickel-and-dime fees that had crept into the process, and it prohibited communications vendors from making "site commission" payments to jails.

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/rather-than-lower-rates-arkansas-jail-simply-cancels-all-inmate-phone-calls/