First Circuit Rejects Request by Securus and Pay Tel to Stay FCC Prison Phone Rate Caps
On November 18, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued two orders denying motions filed by Securus Technologies, LLC, and Pay Tel Communications, Inc., seeking to stay implementation of a rule recently adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which capped the amount both companies may charge for telecommunication services provided to prisoners.
As PLN reported, the FCC published a final rule on August 24, 2024, to significantly reduce the cost of phone and video calls made by people held in prisons and jails nationwide. Under the new rule, which takes effect in 2025, rates in state prisons are limited to $0.06 per minute, while rates in local jails dropped to no more than $0.12 per minute. The FCC also capped the cost of video calls at $0.16 per minute in prisons and between $0.11 to $0.25 per minute in jails. [See: PLN, Oct. 2024, p.1.]
Securus and Pay Tel filed petitions for review of the FCC rule in the First Circuit, moving to stay implementation of the rate caps pending final resolution of the appeals. In brief two-page orders signed by Chief Judge David J. Barron and Circuit Judges Gustavo Gelpi and Seth R. Aframe, the Court denied the motions to stay “without prejudice to later revisitation of relevant points in briefing and during merits review.” See: Securus Techs., LLC v. Fed. Comm. Comm’n, USCA (1st Cir.), Case Nos. 24-1927 and 24-8028; and Pay Tel Comms., Inc. v. Fed. Comm. Comm’n, USCA (1st Cir.), Case Nos. 24-1969 and 24-8028.
Immediately following the Court’s orders, Securus subsidiary JPay notified the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) that video visits would temporarily go offline while the company updates its system to provide per-minute billing, in compliance with the FCC rule. Washington’s DOC also announced that video calls would be unavailable due to a “system update” from November 18 to 22, 2024. Securus/JPay’s announcement hinted that some prisons might lose video calling, as reported elsewhere in this issue. [See following article.]
Additional source: Filter Mag
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