Prison phone companies today were granted a judicial stay that halts implementation of new, lower rate caps on inmate calls. The court did not halt new limits on certain ancillary fees related to inmate calls, though, so the overall price of prison calling should go down.

Global Tel*Link (GTL) and Securus Technologies had asked the US Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia to stay new price regulations until a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission is decided, arguing that they have a high likelihood of prevailing in the case. The companies argue that the FCC overstepped its authority and that the new limits fall short of what prison phone companies are contractually obligated to pay in "site commissions" to correctional facilities. Despite protest from the FCC, the court today partially granted the stay request.

"While the DC Circuit stayed implementation of new, lower rate caps, and a related rule limiting fees for certain single call services, the Court otherwise declined to delay critical reforms including implementation of caps and restrictions on ancillary fees," the FCC said in a response to the ruling. New ancillary fee limits will take effect on March 17 in prisons and on June 20 in jails.

Interim rate caps set by the commission in 2013 also remain in place, the FCC said, but those limits only address calls that cross state lines. The FCC's latest vote on inmate calling rates in October 2015 went further, with lower rate caps on interstate calls and new caps on the intrastate calls that happen within a state. The newest caps were supposed to cut the cost of most calls almost in half, to 11¢ per minute. But in some extreme cases, prison phone calls can cost $14 per minute, the FCC said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, both Democrats, said they regret the delay of the new, lower rate caps but that they believe the court will ultimately uphold them. In the meantime, the new limits on ancillary charges will make a difference, they said. "These fees can increase the cost to consumers of a call by nearly 40 percent, compounding the burden of rates that are too high," Wheeler and Clyburn said in a written statement.

New limits on fees include $3 for making automated payments by phone or website; $5.95 for making payments with a "live agent;" and $2 for "paper bill fees." The FCC said it set these limits based on cost data it collected.

Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who voted against the new rate limits, said the court's decision is "no surprise."

"This case captures well how the FCC in recent years has done business," Pai said. "Political expedience trumps everything else; the rule of law is ridiculed rather than respected; and bipartisan compromise is rejected in favor of a party-line vote. Thankfully, we can still count on the federal courts to rebuke an agency untethered to the rule of law."

UPDATE: Lawyers evaluating the court's decision say it may allow the FCC to extend its interim rate caps on interstate calls to intrastate calls.

In its new rules, "the FCC changed the definition of 'inmate calling service' to delete the word 'interstate,' so that the interim rule applicable to 'inmate calling services' will now apply to intrastate calls as well as interstate calls," Georgetown Law lecturer Andrew Schwartzman, an attorney who specializes in media and telecommunications policy, told Ars. Since the court's stay order didn't strike that down, the 2013 rate caps of 21¢ to 25¢ per minute would apply to both types of calls, he said.

An FCC spokesperson declined to comment on whether this reading of the decision is accurate.