One of the biggest areas where Trump’s election is having an immediate and dangerous impact is at the FCC, which is now led by a man in the pocket of the telecoms. He’s an opponent of net neutrality and is now also reversing the previous position of limiting the outrageous rates inmates and their families must pay to speak on the phone.





Federal regulators no longer are pressing to cut the costs of most prison phone calls, backing away from a years-long effort to limit charges imposed by a handful of private companies on inmates and their families. The shift by the Federal Communications Commission comes as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Monday considers whether commissioners went too far when they capped prices for inmate calls that had reached more than a $1 per minute. To make phone calls from most federal and state prisons, inmates generally must set up accounts with a private company to hold money deposited by family members. The companies typically have a contract with the prisons, which receive a portion of the call revenue. Federal regulators had pushed since 2013 to lower the costs, saying the prices made it too hard for relatives to stay in touch… Law enforcement officials opposed to the rate caps say they depend on the shared funds they get under the contracts to help pay for inmate programs such as addiction counseling. The funds also have gone to pay salaries and benefits, according to court filings. Cheryl Leanza, a policy adviser with the media justice ministry of the United Church of Christ, said it is “inappropriate for state governments or local governments to rely on the family members of incarcerated people to subsidize the cost of government. This should not be put on families who are the least able to afford it.”

This is just the government grifting. Rather than funding the budget for prisons adequately, they’re taxing the families of inmates, the last people who can afford it, instead. Here’s what should happen: There should be no private phone companies involved at all. All it takes is a broadband internet account and any calls to and from inmates are free. In fact, those calls should be Skype calls, not just phone calls.

Studies show that continual interaction with their families is one of the most important parts of rehabilitation for those in prison and for lowering recidivism rates. That should be the goal, not for the prison to make money on this phone call scam. But as usual, especially with Republicans, money wins out over people’s lives.