I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1133 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Commu-
nications Commission to prescribe rules regulating inmate telephone serv-
ice rates. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 23, 2009 
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 require the 
Federal Communications Commission to prescribe rules 
regulating inmate telephone service rates. 
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 ‘‘Family Telephone Con-
nection Protection Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds that: 
(1) The telephone is the primary method by 
which individuals correspond and maintain contact 
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with family members who are incarcerated in correc-
tional institutions. 
(2) Except for emergency purposes, family 
members are not allowed to call people incarcerated 
in correctional institutions; incarcerated persons are 
typically allowed to call family members and other 
pre-approved individuals only through payphones 
physically located on the premises of correctional in-
stitutions. 
(3) Inmate telephone service in correctional in-
stitutions often is limited to collect calling. 
(4) Regardless of whether the prisoners’ calls 
are placed collect or through a debit account, the 
prisoners’ family members typically pay for the calls, 
either through their telephone bills, in the case of 
collect calls received from prisoners, or by making 
deposits directly into prisoners’ debit accounts. 
(5) Innocent citizens are paying excessive tele-
phone charges simply due to having a family mem-
ber or loved one who is incarcerated. 
(6) The rates for calls from correctional institu-
tions are some of the highest rates in the United 
States, with some per-minute charges reaching $1 
and service or connection charges of $3.95 per call. 
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(7) Information compiled by the Congress and 
the Federal Communications Commission shows that 
the high rates are due in part to the lack of competi-
tion between telephone companies that provide long 
distance inmate telephone service to correctional in-
stitutions. 
(8) There are no competitive forces providing 
incentives for those carriers to lower prices or oper-
ate efficiently because, unlike the mass market, only 
one carrier is typically permitted to provide long dis-
tance inmate telephone service within each correc-
tional institution. 
(9) High calling rates also are due in part to 
commissions that carriers pay to correctional institu-
tion administrators for the exclusive right to provide 
long distance inmate telephone service in a correc-
tional facility. In some cases, such commissions ac-
count for 50 percent or more of the total charges. 
(10) The collection of such commissions by cor-
rectional institution administrators and state depart-
ments of correction based upon interstate tele-
communications revenues is a burden on interstate 
commerce. 
(11) Due to the lack of competition for tele-
phone services within correctional institutions, fami-
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lies of people in prison, many of whom have low in-
comes, cannot choose the long distance carrier with 
the lowest calling rates and must pay the excessive 
rates charged by the carrier having the exclusive 
right to provide long distance service to the correc-
tional institution from which the call originates. 
(12) It is the policy of the United States to en-
sure that all Americans are afforded just and rea-
sonable communications services, including those 
families that pay rates for inmate telephone service. 
(13) It is clear from various studies that main-
taining frequent and meaningful communications be-
tween people who are incarcerated and family mem-
bers is key to the successful social reintegration of 
formerly incarcerated individuals. Such contact re-
duces recidivism and facilitates rehabilitation, which 
in turn reduces crime and the future costs of impris-
onment. 
(14) Frequent communications between incar-
cerated persons and family members is burdened, 
and in some cases, prevented, by excessive inmate 
telephone service rates. Excessive inmate telephone 
service rates thus weaken the family and community 
ties that are necessary for successful reentry into so-
ciety by persons who were formerly incarcerated and 
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