PayTel Offers Inmate Calling Proposal; Sheriffs Cite Institutional Differences
Pay Tel offered specific proposals for overhauling FCC rules for inmate calling services, in a meeting with agency officials, according ex parte filings submitted by the provider in docket 12-375 Monday. Pay Tel discussed the following elements it believes are…
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necessary for "comprehensive, lasting ICS reform: (1) a tiered rate structure that recognizes structural cost differences between jails and prisons and that differentiates between jails by size so as to ensure service to the ... [nation's] small and medium jails; (2) a facility cost recovery fee added to ICS rates; (3) the elimination of many ancillary fees and reasonable caps on select, permissible payment fees (and on single call programs); (4) ensuring that ICS consumers do not pay for integrated services out of ICS rates; and (5) an appropriate transition period for implementation of reform that minimizes potential 'gaming' of Commission action." One of the filings contained a two-page outline of the proposals. Meanwhile, the National Sheriffs' Association responded to two other proposals for setting ICS compensation and urged the FCC to factor in institutional differences, according to NSA ex parte filings Tuesday. "While a formula or proxy-type method to determine compensation for correctional facilities may have merit, it should take into account the differences between prisons and jails and between small and larger jails," the NSA said. "As demonstrated in the record, there are a number of differences between jails and prisons which result in a higher cost to Sheriffs and those operating jails to provide the security and administrative duties necessary to allow ICS in jails. Among those differences, jails are typically operated by local jurisdictions that are under the authority of the county government or an elected sheriff and they do not have the economies of scope and scale of state or federal prisons."