The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 Thursday to cap local and in-state prison and jail phone rates and to cut its existing cap on long-distance calls by up to 50 percent.

“While contact between inmates and their loved ones has been shown to reduce the rate of recidivism, high inmate calling rates have made that contact unaffordable for many families, who often live in poverty,” FCC’s announcement states.

New caps mandate both local and interstate calls in prisons cannot exceed $1.65 for a 15-minute phone call – a substantial decrease from current rates reaching as much as $14 for a single minute once fees and service charges are applied.

Local jail costs are capped on a sliding scale, with a 14-cent-per-minute cap on jails with 1,000 or more inmates, such as in Multnomah County.

“Fees were really jacking the costs up in a lot of cases,” said FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield.

While additional charges may still apply, the FCC also moved to further regulate fees, which can add nearly 40 percent to the cost of a call. It also banned flat-rate calling – the practice of charging for a full 15 minutes, regardless of a call’s duration.

While still allowed after Thursday’s vote, the FCC “discourages” jails and prisons from taking commissions from phone call sales, as is common practice.

Wigfield said there was “some question” as to whether the FCC could get involved in the relationship between a phone company and a state, but “we have authority over rates and fees, so that was another way to skin the cat.”

In anticipation of the FCC ruling, when Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office renegotiated its contract with prison phone company giant Securus Technologies, Inc. earlier this year, it lowered charges for a 15-minute call from more than $5 to $2.55 for both local and interstate connections.

Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Steven Alexander said Thursday that under the terms of the new contract the county is no longer collecting commissions on phone calls and no additional fees are tacked on to calls.

Before the FCC initially capped interstate calls in 2014, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office was collecting about $400,000 per year in commissions from Securus.

Alexander said, “We actually put a provision in incase the FCC did rule something that ended up being smaller than what we had.” He said with the new lower rate, that provision guarantees his office would not face any additional costs.

Last week, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) joined 14 other U.S. senators – including Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) – in signing a letter to FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler, commending him on his agency’s proposal to cap prison phone charges and applauding the discouragement of commissions.

“Currently, 2.2 million Americans are incarcerated and more than 2.7 million children in the United States have an incarcerated parent,” the letter states. “These children are often only able to connect with their parents by phone, as prisons and jails are often far away from where family members live.”

The FCC also announced it’s seeking comments on reforming video visitation and international calling rates.

Wigfield says the new rates can be expected to take effect in prisons in early 2016 and in jails mid 2016.

Editor's note: This story originally stated Multnomah County jail calls would drop to $1.65. That rate is for state and federal prisons. Multnomah County jail calls will drop to $2.10 per 15-minute phone call.