Securus/JPay Video Calling Service Potentially Threatened by New Rate Caps
On November 19, 2024, prison telecom Securus Technologies, Inc., along with subsidiary JPay, notified users of services provided by the firms at prisons and jails of steps being taken to comply with a recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order. As PLN reported, that August 2024 order capped phone rates at $.06 per minute for prisons and $.12 per minute for jails; video calling transaction fees were also eliminated and rates capped at $.16 per minute in prisons and $.11 to $.25 per minute in jails, depending on size. [See: PLN, Oct. 2024, p.1.]
In its announcement of these changes, Securus/JPay advised incarcerated users that it currently doesn’t have the functionality to charge by the minute for video calling, as the order requires. So free video calling “may” be offered at some lockups while the firms revamped their programs to accommodate the order. But the announcement also included a vague threat that “some facilities might choose to temporarily disable video calling.”
Meanwhile, on November 19, 2024, Securus Video Connect went offline throughout the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) for five days while a “system update” was underway. Video calling in DOC prisons currently costs $4.95 for 30 minutes—a little over 3% more than the new rate cap will allow. However, the current system does not allow for shorter— and therefore cheaper—calls.
Additional source: KNDO/KNDU
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