Workshop on Reforming Inmate Calling Services Rates

Jul
10
2013

Workshop on Reforming Inmate Calling Services Rates

9:00 am - 4:30 pm EDT
Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, DC

The agenda for the workshop included remarks from special guests and three panel discussions, as follows:

Welcome
(9:00 AM)		 Roger Goldblatt, Associate Chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Opening Remarks
(9:15 AM)		 Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn
Panel 1
(9:30 AM)		 Consumers and Public Policy – This panel explored individual and societal impacts of ICS rates, rate reform, and increased contact between incarcerated individuals and their families.

Moderator:
Deena Shetler, Associate Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau

FCC Staff Participant:
Lynne Engledow, Assistant Chief, Pricing Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau

Panelists:
Alex Friedmann, Associate Director, Human Rights Defense Center & Managing Editor, Prison Legal News
The Honorable Patrick A. Hope, Member, Virginia House of Delegates
Cheryl Leanza, President, A Learned Hand, LLC on behalf of United Church of Christ's media justice and communications rights ministry
Talila Lewis, Founder and President, Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf (HEARD)
Tim Meade, President and Chief Executive Officer, Millicorp
Charlie Sullivan, Founder, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE)
 
Remarks from
Dignitaries
(11:00 AM)		 The Honorable Bobby Rush
The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton
Panel 2
(1:00 PM)		 State Actions to Reform Inmate Calling Services Rates – This panel focused on issues addressed by states that have undertaken ICS rate reform. In particular, the panel explored how rates have been set within those states, what the reform process has been, and how existing contracts and site commissions have been taken into account. The panel also considered concerns that have arisen with disability-related calling and how states are addressing those challenges.

Moderator:
Commissioner John Burke, Chair, NARUC Committee on Telecommunications & Vermont Public Service Board

FCC Staff Participant:
Kalpak Gude, Chief, Pricing Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau

Panelists:
Commissioner Anne C. Boyle, Nebraska Public Service Commission
amalia deloney, Associate Director, The Center for Media Justice
The Honorable Patrick A. Hope, Member, Virginia House of Delegates
Barry Marano, Case Management Counselor & ADA Coordinator for Deaf and Hearing Impaired, Powhatan Correctional Center (VA)
Jason Marks, Former Commissioner, New Mexico Public Regulation Commission
Afternoon Remarks
(2:30 PM)		 Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel
Panel 3
(2:40 PM)		 Providing Inmate Calling Services – This panel considered how ICS is evolving to drive efficiencies while providing service responsive to the unique needs of correctional facilities. This panel explored the costs of providing service, including costs that may apply individually or be shared among facilities as well as how costs vary across type and size of correctional facilities.

Moderator:
Commissioner Anne C. Boyle, Nebraska Public Service Commission

FCC Staff Participants:
Eric Ralph, Chief Economist, Wireline Competition Bureau
Randy Clarke, Deputy Chief, Pricing Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau

Panelists:
Mitch Lucas, Assistant Sheriff, Charleston County Sheriff's Office (SC) & 1st Vice President, American Jail Association
Lee G. Petro, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Richard Torgersrud, Chief Executive Officer, Telmate, LLC
Vincent Townsend, President, Pay Tel Communications, Inc.
Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative Timothy O. Woods, Director of Government Affairs and Contracts, National Sheriffs' Association
Closing Remarks
(4:00 PM)		 Julie Veach, Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau

We remind the public that presentations to decision-making personnel that go to the merits of the Commission’s pending permit-but-disclose proceeding in Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services, WC Docket No. 12-375, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 27 FCC Rcd 16629-30 (2012), must comply with the Commission’s ex parte rules. See 47 C.F.R. § 1.1200 et seq. Interested parties are also invited to submit written ex parte presentations in this public docket.

Please note: all public remarks made at the workshop will be transcribed and entered into the record for this proceeding. Thus, it is not necessary for speakers making public remarks at the workshop to submit filings in compliance with the Commission's ex parte rules.

For additional information about the Workshop, please contact Gregory Haledjian of the Wireline Competition Bureau, at (202) 418-7440 or gregory.haledjian@fcc.gov. For media inquiries, contact Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253, or mark.wigfield@fcc.gov.

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