I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6389 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure just and reasonable 
charges for confinement facility communications services, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 25, 2020 
Mr. RUSH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure just 
and reasonable charges for confinement facility commu-
nications services, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Martha Wright Prison 
Phone Justice Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Prison, jails, and other confinement facili-
ties in the United States have unique telecommuni-
cations needs due to safety and security concerns. 
(2) Unjust and unreasonable charges for tele-
phone and advanced communications services in con-
finement facilities negatively impact the safety and 
security of communities in the United States by 
damaging relationships between incarcerated persons 
and their support systems, thereby exacerbating re-
cidivism. 
(3) All people in the United States, including 
anyone who pays for confinement facility commu-
nications services, should have access to communica-
tions services at charges that are just and reason-
able. 
(4) Certain markets for confinement facility 
communications services are distorted due to reverse 
competition, in which the financial interests of the 
entity making the buying decision (the confinement 
facility) are aligned with the seller (the provider of 
confinement facility communications services) and 
not the consumer (the incarcerated person or a 
member of his or her family). This reverse competi-
tion occurs because site commission payments to the 
confinement facility from the provider of confine-
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ment facility communications services are the chief 
criterion many facilities use to select their provider 
of confinement facility communications services. 
(5) Charges for confinement facility commu-
nications services that have been shown to be unjust 
and unreasonable are often a result of site commis-
sion payments that far exceed the costs incurred by 
the confinement facility in accommodating these 
services. 
(6) Unjust and unreasonable charges have been 
assessed for both audio and video services and for 
both intrastate and interstate communications from 
confinement facilities. 
(7) Mrs. Martha Wright-Reed led a campaign 
for just communications rates for incarcerated peo-
ple for over a decade. 
(8) Mrs. Wright-Reed was the lead plaintiff in 
Wright v. Corrections Corporation of America, CA 
No. 00–293 (GK) (D.D.C. 2001). 
(9) That case ultimately led to the Wright Peti-
tion at the Federal Communications Commission, 
CC Docket No. 96–128 (November 3, 2003). 
(10) As a grandmother, Mrs. Wright-Reed was 
forced to choose between purchasing medication and 
communicating with her incarcerated grandson. 
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