STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services, WC Docket No. 12-375.
With this rulemaking, we take a critical step toward addressing the high cost that prison inmates 
and their families pay for phone service.  This is not just an issue of markets and rates—this is a broader 
issue of social justice.  
In many cases, inmates are separated from their families by hundreds of miles, and families may 
lack the time and means to make regular visits.  Phone calls are the only way these families can stay 
connected.  But when a single call may cost as much as what you and I pay for unlimited phone service, 
the financial burden of staying in touch may be too much for inmates’ families to bear.  This harms the 
families and children of the incarcerated.  But it goes beyond that.  It harms all of us because we know 
that regular contact between prisoners and family members reduces recidivism.  And in a country with the 
highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, where we spend nearly $58 billion annually to manage 
its prison population—all of us should care about reducing recidivism.
Last year, the Commission took its first big step to address this problem.  As a result, we reduced 
interstate long-distance inmate calling rates by nearly 40 percent.  But we vowed to do more—and that is 
why we are here today.  This new rulemaking seeks to address the exorbitant rates that prisoners and 
families of prisoners still face for in-state calls and slew of suspect fees for ancillary services and 
commission charges.  
I am pleased to support today’s rulemaking.  I believe that when history is written, we will be 
able to say we did good and cleaned up questionable charges and usurious rates.  Moreover, I believe that 
when history is written, it will show that there are two women who deserve credit for righting this wrong.  
The first is Martha Wright, who more than a decade ago, petitioned this agency because she thought it 
was unacceptable that she had to pay outlandish fees just to stay in touch with her grandson.  The second 
is my colleague Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who has been a tireless advocate for fixing this problem.  
Our arc for action may be far too long, but it will bend toward justice.  These two women are chiefly 
responsible—and I am proud to support them.