Jail411 archive report
Published March 11, 2026 · Updated March 22, 2026
The Federal Communications Commission has raised the caps on phone and video call rates in prisons and jails by as much as 83 percent compared to rules it adopted unanimously just one year earlier — a reversal that advocacy groups say will cost incarcerated families millions of dollars and undermine decades of work to make correctional communications affordable.
What Changed
In July 2024, the FCC voted unanimously to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Fair and Just Communications Act, setting phone rate caps of 6 cents per minute in prisons and large jails, 7 cents per minute in medium-sized jails, and slightly higher rates for smaller facilities. The rules represented the most significant reduction in prison phone costs in the history of federal regulation.
Those rules never took full effect. In June 2025, the FCC announced a two-year postponement of the 2024 rate caps after receiving complaints from local sheriffs and prison telecom companies. Then in October 2025, the commission adopted new interim rates that significantly exceeded the original caps: phone calls now cost up to 11 cents per minute in large prisons and up to 18 cents per minute in the smallest jails.
Video calls, which were not commonly available when the prison phone reform movement began, face even higher caps: up to 23 cents per minute in large facilities and as much as 41 cents per minute in small jails. The revised rate caps will be in force beginning April 6, 2026.
How the Rollback Happened
The reversal was driven by a combination of industry lobbying, political pressure, and legal challenges. Republican attorneys general from 14 states filed a lawsuit challenging the FCC's authority to limit prison phone charges under the Martha Wright-Reed Act. Prison telecom companies — led by industry giants that hold monopoly or near-monopoly contracts with correctional facilities — argued that the 2024 rates were unsustainably low.
The political dynamics at the FCC shifted as well. Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Olivia Trusty, both appointed by President Trump, supported the higher rate caps. Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez voted against the order, calling it "indefensible."
The Impact on Families
For families of incarcerated people, the difference between 6 cents per minute and 18 cents per minute is not abstract. A 15-minute phone call at the new small-jail rate will cost $2.70 — compared to $1.05 under the original caps. For families who rely on daily or near-daily calls to maintain bonds with incarcerated loved ones, the annual cost difference can reach hundreds of dollars.
Research has consistently shown that maintaining family contact during incarceration reduces recidivism and improves outcomes for both incarcerated people and their children. Every increase in communication costs creates a barrier to contact that disproportionately affects low-income families — the same families that are already bearing the heaviest financial burden of incarceration.
Beyond Phone Calls
The phone rate debate is just one piece of a larger communications landscape that has become increasingly complex and expensive. Video calls, text messaging, email-like platforms, and digital tablet features are priced separately and remain largely unregulated by the FCC. A 20-minute video call can cost between $5 and $12, while sending a short message or viewing a photo may carry per-use charges.
In California, the state's correctional system began transitioning to new tablet systems in February 2026. While tablets expand the range of available communication options, they also create new revenue streams for the companies that provide them — with costs ultimately borne by incarcerated people and their families.
In federal prisons, the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System enables electronic messaging, but the system is funded entirely by profits from inmate commissary purchases, telephone services, and per-message fees — creating a closed financial loop in which incarcerated people fund their own communication infrastructure through markup charges on other services.
What's at Stake
The FCC's rollback reverses years of bipartisan progress on prison phone reform — a movement that began with a petition filed by Martha Wright, a grandmother from Washington, D.C., who could not afford to call her grandson in prison. The act named after her was signed into law with bipartisan support in 2023.
Advocacy organizations including the Prison Policy Initiative and Prison Phone Justice have called the new rates a betrayal of the law's intent and have vowed to continue fighting for lower caps through regulatory and legislative channels. The legal challenges to the FCC's authority remain pending and could ultimately determine whether the commission can set meaningful rate limits at all.
For more on communication costs and conditions in correctional facilities, explore the Jail411 facility directory.