Arizona Inmate Education Spending Declined While ICS Commissions Rose, Petro Says
Claims by the Arizona Department of Corrections about the impact of eliminating the commission payments that inmate calling services providers make to correctional facilities are “alarmist" and “entirely misplaced,” wrote the attorney representing the late Martha Wright and others who…
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had petitioned the FCC for action on ICS rates (see 1501200054). The letter was posted in docket 12-375 Friday. ADC had warned that the elimination of the payments would endanger inmate educational services funded with the commissions, said the letter from Lee Petro of Drinker Biddle. Based on budget documents ADC sent to the state’s legislature, funding for inmates education and other programs dropped from $3.2 million in 2010 to $1.7 million in 2014, Petro wrote. The amount ADC received in “’kickbacks’” from the commission payments rose from $3.6 million in 2010 to $4.1 million in 2014, and the surplus in the inmate education and programs fund grew from $1 million in 2010 to $8.8 million in 2014, Petro wrote. ADC referred us to the department's initial comment. Meanwhile, any interstate or intrastate inmate calling services rate cap set by the FCC should be higher than the average cost of providing the services for carriers, Securus CEO Richard Smith, Vice President Dennis Reinhold and Arent Fox’s Stephanie Joyce, representing the company, told an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai March 8, said an ex parte filing posted Monday. Providers should be able to recover commission payments they make to correctional facilities by going above the cap, the company said. The company representatives made the same arguments, also on March 8, to Wireline Bureau officials, another ex parte filing said. It said bureau officials urged the company to try to reach a consensus with law enforcement associations.