FCC approves plan to make some phone calls cheaper for inmates and their families
Inmates make collect phone calls at a jail in Orange County, California, in 2011. Photo by H. Lorren Au Jr./MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images.
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to make phone calls more affordable for people in prisons or jails by approving a plan to reduce out-of-state call rates by at least one-third.
The FCC capped at 12 cents per minute the rate for prison calls and 14 cents per minute the rates in larger jails. Interstate rate caps were previously set at 21 cents per minute for debit and prepaid calls from prisons and jails with more than 1,000 inmates, according to an FCC proposal.