FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 October 2025
Contact: Jin.Choi@mail.house.gov
Reps. Barragán and Clarke Oppose GOP Plan to Raise Phone and Video Rates for Incarcerated People and Their Loved Ones
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, Congresswoman Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (NY-09), and 33 of their colleagues in the House of Representatives sent a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to oppose his decision to roll back the bipartisan 2024 Incarcerated People’s Communications Services (IPCS) framework, which has helped incarcerated individuals stay in contact with their loved ones at affordable rates. Chairman Carr’s draft order would raise the per-minute rate caps for phone calls by as much as 83 percent and as much as 64 percent for video calls. This could shift hundreds of millions of dollars in additional annual costs onto the families and loved ones of incarcerated people.
Under Carr’s proposal, the smallest jails would face the highest per-minute rate caps, placing the burden of these costs on families in low-income and rural communities. Furthermore, it would enable jails and prisons to tack on new “facility” and “security” fees that would further inflate the overall cost consumers must pay to speak with those in prison.
“To raise the price caps for phone and video calls in prison is to take away from the voices of incarcerated people,” said Rep. Barragán. “These calls serve as a lifeline for those behind bars, and their families and loved ones often already sacrifice too much to afford every minute of connection. Before the FCC acted in 2024, some families were paying up to tens of thousands of dollars per year just to hear their loved ones’ voices. Chairman Carr’s proposal to roll back those reforms and cut off access to what is often incarcerated people’s only form of communication is inhumane. The FCC must preserve and enforce the 2024 IPCS framework to guarantee every incarcerated person the basic right to stay in contact at an affordable rate.”
“It is a fact that providing affordable costs for correctional facility phone calls delivers better outcomes and lowers recidivism rates for formerly incarcerated individuals. Our work to establish and enact the bipartisan Incarcerated People’s Communications Services framework was born out of all available evidence, and its implementation represented a major stride towards ending the exorbitant phone fees that line industry pockets and disconnect people in jails and prisons from their essential support systems. And that is why I am entirely unsurprised to see FCC Chairman Carr viciously seek to undo the progress we achieved through the IPCS, for there is no opportunity to punish, penalize, and put down others that the Trump Administration will not grab onto with both hands. Not only is Chairman Carr proposing to completely roll back the IPCS, he intends to create conditions even worse than those that first necessitated it. My colleagues and I oppose this decision wholeheartedly, and we call upon Chairman Carr to cease the cruelty for cruelty’s sake and restore the IPCS framework immediately,” said Rep. Clarke.
This letter is co-signed, along with the co-leads, by: Joyce Beatty, Sanford Bishop, André Carson, Kathy Castor, Judy Chu, Emanuel Cleaver, Danny Davis, Diana DeGette, Dwight Evans, Jesús García, Daniel Goldman, Jonathan Jackson, Henry Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Robin Kelly, Summer Lee, Doris Matsui, Lucy McBath, Jennifer McClellan, James McGovern, Eleanor Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Delia Ramirez, Emily Randall, Janice Schakowsky, Terri Sewell, Lateefah Simon, Adam Smith, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, Nydia Velázquez
To read the full text of the letter, click HERE.
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