Rule2023-06508
Incarcerated People's Communications Services; Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act; Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services
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Published
March 30, 2023
Effective
March 30, 2023
Issuing agencies
Federal Communications Commission
Abstract
In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) reaffirms its prior delegation of authority to the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) and Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) to modify the Commission's most recent mandatory data collection as appropriate to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. The Commission also reaffirms and updates its prior delegation of authority to WCB and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) to modify the instructions and reporting template for the annual reports required from service providers as appropriate to supplement the information that will be received in this data collection.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 61 (Thursday, March 30, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 61 (Thursday, March 30, 2023)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 19001-19004]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06508]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 64
[WC Docket Nos. 12-375, 23-62; FCC 23-19; FR ID 133862]
Incarcerated People's Communications Services; Implementation of
the Martha Wright-Reed Act; Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling
Services
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Delegations of authority; reaffirmation and modification.
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SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission
(Commission) reaffirms its prior delegation of authority to the
Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) and Office of Economics and Analytics
(OEA) to modify the Commission's most recent mandatory data collection
as appropriate to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable
Communications Act of 2022. The Commission also reaffirms and updates
its prior delegation of authority to WCB and the Consumer and
Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) to modify the instructions and
reporting template for the annual reports required from service
providers as appropriate to supplement the information that will be
received in this data collection.
DATES: The delegations of authority to WCB, OEA, and CGB are effective
March 30, 2023.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Scott, Disability Rights
Office of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, at (202) 418-
1264 or via email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#365b5f555e57535a1845555942427650555518515940"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e885818b80898d84c69b8b879c9ca88e8b8bc68f879e">[email protected]</span></a>, regarding portions of this
document relating to communications services for incarcerated people
with hearing or speech disabilities, and Stephen Meil, Pricing Policy
Division of the Wireline Competition Bureau, at (202) 418-7233 or via
email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#601314051008050e4e0d05090c200603034e070f16"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="dfacabbaafb7bab1f1b2bab6b39fb9bcbcf1b8b0a9">[email protected]</span></a>, regarding other matters.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Order,
document FCC 23-19, released March 17, 2023, in WC Docket Nos. 12-375
and 23-62. The full text of document FCC 23-19 can be accessed
electronically via the FCC's Electronic Document Management System
(EDOCS) website at <a href="http://www.fcc.gov/edocs">www.fcc.gov/edocs</a> or via the FCC's Electronic
Comment Filing System (ECFS) website at <a href="http://www.fcc.gov/ecfs">www.fcc.gov/ecfs</a>. To request
materials in accessible formats for people with disabilities (Braille,
large print, electronic files, audio format), send an email to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1a7c79792f2a2e5a7c7979347d756c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="b4d2d7d7818480f4d2d7d79ad3dbc2">[email protected]</span></a>, or call the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at
(202) 418-0530 (voice) or (202) 418-0432 (TTY).
Synopsis
1. In this Order, the Commission builds on its efforts to date,
bolstered by the new authority Congress has bestowed, and begins the
process of implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable
Communications Act of 2022 (Martha Wright-Reed Act or Act) to adopt
just and reasonable rates and charges for incarcerated people's audio
and video communications services. Martha Wright-Reed Act, Public Law
117-338, 136 Stat. 6156. This Order continues and expands on the
Commission's ongoing efforts to reform providers' rates, charges, and
practices in connection with interstate and international inmate
calling services in WC Docket No. 12-375. At the same time, document
FCC 23-19 initiates a new docket, WC Docket No. 23-62, to specifically
address implementation of, and changes required by, the provisions of
the Martha Wright-Reed Act.
[[Page 19002]]
2. In the Order, the Commission reaffirms its prior delegation of
data collection authority to WCB and OEA and directs them to update and
restructure their most recent data collection as appropriate in light
of the requirements of the new statute, so that the Commission may meet
its statutory obligation to ensure that the rates and charges for
communications services between incarcerated people and their friends
and families are just and reasonable. The Commission also reaffirms and
updates its prior delegation of authority to WCB and CGB to modify the
instructions and reporting template for the annual reports required
from service providers as appropriate to supplement the information
that will be received in this data collection.
Background
3. Data Collection. On January 5, 2023, President Biden signed into
law the Martha Wright-Reed Act. The Act was the product of efforts by
multiple individuals and committed stakeholders over a number of years
to comprehensively address the persistent problem of unreasonably high
rates and charges incarcerated people and their families pay for
communications services. At its core, the Act removes the statutory
limitations that previously prevented the Commission from setting
comprehensive and effective just and reasonable rates for incarcerated
people's communications services.
4. Specifically, the Martha Wright-Reed Act modifies section 276 of
the Communications Act of 1934 (Communications Act) to explicitly
enable the Commission to require that rates for incarcerated people's
communications services be just and reasonable, irrespective of the
``calling device'' used. The Act expressly allows the Commission to
``use industry-wide average costs,'' as well as the ``average costs of
service of a communications service provider'' in setting just and
reasonable rates. The Martha Wright-Reed Act also requires that the
Commission ``shall consider,'' as part of its ratemaking, ``costs
associated with any safety and security measures necessary to provide''
telephone service and advanced communications services. The statute
further directs the Commission to promulgate regulations necessary to
implement the statutory provisions not earlier than 18 months and not
later than 24 months after the date of its enactment.
5. In 2013, the Commission adopted interim interstate rate caps and
adopted the Commission's first mandatory data collection regarding
inmate calling services (ICS), requiring all providers of those
services to submit data on their underlying costs of service. Rates for
Interstate Inmate Calling Services, 78 FR 67956, November 13, 2013. It
also adopted an annual reporting obligation requiring providers to
provide specific information on their operations, including their rates
and ancillary service charges.
6. In 2015, in light of record evidence of continued ``egregiously
high'' rates, the Commission adopted a comprehensive framework for
regulating rates and charges for both interstate and intrastate calling
services for incarcerated people, re-adopting the interim interstate
rate caps it adopted in 2013, and extending them to intrastate calls
pending the effectiveness of the new rate caps. The Commission also
adopted a Second Mandatory Data Collection to enable it to identify
trends in the market and adopt further reforms. Rates for Interstate
Inmate Calling Services, 80 FR 79135, December 18, 2015.
7. Subsequently, after seeking comment on additional steps to
address unreasonable rates, the Commission released a comprehensive
order in which, among other actions, it reformed the treatment of site
commissions, set new interim interstate rate caps for prisons and jails
with average daily populations of 1,000 or more incarcerated people,
and capped international calling rates for the first time. Rates for
Interstate Inmate Calling Services, 86 FR 40682, July 28, 2021 (2021
ICS Order).
8. In the 2021 ICS Order, the Commission also sought to improve the
data it collected on calling services for incarcerated people as part
of its efforts to set reasonable permanent rate caps. It delegated
authority to WCB and OEA to establish a Third Mandatory Data Collection
to collect uniform cost data to use in setting rate caps that more
closely reflect inmate service providers' costs of providing service at
correctional facilities. After seeking public comment, in January 2022,
WCB and OEA released an Order adopting the data collection. Parties'
responses to the Third Mandatory Data Collection were due June 30,
2022, and the Commission affirmatively incorporates those responses
into the record in this proceeding.
Order
9. The Martha Wright-Reed Act directs the Commission to promulgate
regulations necessary to implement its provisions not earlier than 18
months and not later than 24 months after the date of its enactment,
and includes specific language addressing the use of data in
promulgating implementing regulations. The statutory language provides
both guidance and directives regarding the use of data, including
allowing the Commission to ``use industry-wide average costs of
telephone service and advanced communications services and the average
costs of service of a communications service provider'' in determining
just and reasonable rates while ensuring providers are fairly
compensated. It further states that the Commission ``shall consider
costs associated with safety and security measures necessary to provide
a service'' and ``differences in costs'' by ``small, medium and large
facilities or other characteristics.'' These provisions contemplate and
require the collection and analysis of advanced communications
services' costs and related data, especially for video communications,
among other data that, prior to the Act, the Commission either had no
jurisdiction to collect or reason for doing so. The data analysis to
implement the statute's mandate that rates and charges be ``just and
reasonable'' must be completed within the required 18 to 24 month
timeframe.
10. The Commission's most recent data collection, limited only to
inmate telephone services data, took nearly 14 months from the date the
Commission delegated authority to WCB and OEA to conduct the data
collection on May 24, 2021, to obtaining OMB approval of the data
collection instructions and templates, issuing the order directing
providers to file their responses and waiting for responses to be filed
on June 30, 2022 (a total 402 days for Commission staff to receive
responses from the date of delegation of authority). In addition to
these steps, WCB and OEA will need time to compile the data into a
consistent and meaningful format, analyze the data, and make
recommendations for Commission consideration to result in the Act's
implementing rules.
11. To ensure that the Commission has the data it needs, in time to
meet this statutory mandate, and given the procedurally complex and
time-consuming process for data collections generally, the Commission
reaffirms its prior delegation of authority to WCB and OEA and directs
them to update the prior data collection to encompass, and collect,
data on all incarcerated people's communications services from all
providers of those services now subject to its expanded authority under
the Martha Wright-Reed Act and the Communications Act of 1934, as
amended. Specifically, the Commission delegates authority to WCB and
OEA to
[[Page 19003]]
update and restructure the most recent data collection as appropriate
to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Act. The Commission has conducted
three data collections related to incarcerated people's calling
services in the past ten years. To allow for consistent data reporting,
the Commission directed the Commission staff to develop a template for
providers to use when submitting their data and to furnish providers
with instructions to implement the collection. The Commission also
directed staff to review the providers' submissions and delegated to
the staff the authority to require providers to submit additional data
as necessary to perform its review.
12. The Commission concludes that it must immediately begin the
process of updating and restructuring the most recent data collection
if it is to meet both its procedural obligations (to consider certain
types of data) and its substantive responsibilities (to set just and
reasonable rates and charges) under the Martha Wright-Reed Act and the
Communications Act. It therefore delegates to WCB and OEA authority to
implement any appropriate modifications to this data collection,
including with respect to information concerning intrastate services
and ``any audio or video communications service used by inmates for the
purpose of communicating with individuals outside of the correctional
institution where the inmate is held, regardless of technology used.''
The Commission directs WCB and OEA to modify the template and
instructions for the collection to the extent appropriate to timely
collect such information to cover the additional services and providers
now subject to its authority. It also delegates to WCB and OEA the
authority to require providers now covered by section 276 of the
Communications Act to submit any additional information that they find
will assist the Commission in implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act,
including, but not limited to, the authority to request more recent
data for additional years not covered by the most recent data
collection. Finally, the Commission delegates to WCB and OEA the
authority to conduct the requisite Paperwork Reduction Act analysis for
any new or modified data collection(s) that they implement pursuant to
this Order. Any new or modified requirements that require approval from
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction
Act shall be effective on the date specified in a notice published in
the Federal Register announcing OMB's approval.
13. Annual Reports. The Commission also reaffirms and updates its
prior delegation of authority to WCB and the CGB to revise the
instructions and reporting template for the Annual Reports that all
service providers are required to file each year. Specifically, it
delegates authority to WCB and CGB to modify, supplement, and update
those instructions and that template as appropriate to supplement the
information the Commission will be receiving in response to the
Mandatory Data Collection described above. The Commission finds that
this additional information is needed to enable it to understand the
rates and ancillary service fees incarcerated people's communications
service providers charge for or in connection with the audio and video
services now subject to its authority. However, the Commission notes
that incarcerated people's communications services providers that do
not provide any services classified as inmate calling services under
its current rules will not be subject to this reporting requirement.
Finally, the Commission delegates to WCB and CGB the authority to
conduct the requisite Paperwork Reduction Act analysis for any changes
to the Annual Report requirements that are implemented pursuant to this
Order.
14. Effective Date of Delegations of Authority. The Commission's
delegations of authority to WCB, OEA, and CGB will take effect on March
30, 2023. Making the delegations effective at that time will enable
WCB, OEA, and CGB to move as expeditiously as practicable toward
modifying, supplementing, and updating the Third Mandatory Data
Collection to include additional information to facilitate the
Commission's ability to fully implement the Martha Wright-Reed Act.
Indeed, the Martha Wright-Reed Act directs the Commission to
``promulgate any regulations necessary'' to establish just and
reasonable rates ``not later than 24 months'' after enactment. Any
unnecessary delay in its efforts to collect appropriate information
would be inconsistent with, and undermine its ability to meet the
deadlines contained in, the Act. Furthermore, given the importance of
these areas to incarcerated people, including those with communication
disabilities, any unnecessary delay in these initiatives would be
inconsistent with the public interest.
15. For purposes of administrative efficiency and to further assist
the Commission in its efforts to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Act,
the Commission intends to consider the extensive record developed in WC
Docket No. 12-375, Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services, and
hereby incorporates the record of that proceeding into WC Docket No.
23-62.
Procedural Matters
16. Congressional Review Act. The Commission has determined that
this Order does not adopt any rules as defined under 5 U.S.C. 551, 804.
Accordingly, the Commission is not required to submit, and will not be
submitting, a copy of document FCC 23-19 to Congress and the Government
Accountability Office pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, 5
U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A).
17. Regulatory Flexibility Act. The Commission has determined that
this Order does not adopt any rules as defined under 5 U.S.C. 551.
Accordingly, the Commission is not required to issue, and will not be
issuing, a final regulatory flexibility analysis concerning the impact
of this Order. See 5 U.S.C. 604.
18. Paperwork Reduction Act. The Commission has determined that
this Order does not contain information collection(s) subject to the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. In addition,
therefore, it does not contain any new or modified information
collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25
employees, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002,
Public Law 107-198.
Ordering Clauses
19. Pursuant to the authority contained in sections 1, 2, 4(i)-(j),
5(c), 201(b), 218, 220, 225, 255, 276, 403, and 716 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i)-(j),
155(c), 201(b), 218, 220, 225, 255, 276, 403, and 617, and the Martha
Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, Public Law
117-338, 136 Stat 6156 (2022), the Order in document FCC 23-19 is
adopted.
20. Pursuant to the authority contained in sections 1, 2, 4(i)-(j),
5(c), 201(b), 218, 220, 225, 255, 276, 403, and 716, of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i)-(j),
155(c), 201(b), 218, 220, 225, 255, 276, 403, and 617, and the Martha
Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, Public Law
117-338, 136 Stat 6156 (2022), and sections 0.201 and 1.103(a) of the
Commission's rules, 47 CFR 0.201, 1.103(a), the Order in document FCC
23-19 shall be effective on March 30, 2023.
[[Page 19004]]
Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-06508 Filed 3-29-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P
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