The Atlantic

Why Life for Inmates Will Get More Expensive Under Trump and Sessions

Growing prison fees and fines faced by the incarcerated became a target of the Justice Department under President Obama. Those days are over.
Source: Stephen Lam / Reuters

In 2015, the FCC that would cap some of mind-boggling costs associated with making phone calls inside American prisons. Some inmates and their families, the commission noted, were paying as much as $14 a minute for calls. Other inmates were subject to burdensome and arbitrary-seeming fees, such as being charged a maximum rate no matter the length of a call or high additional charges just to process payments for the calls themselves. The FCC initiative was met with enthusiasm by criminal-justice reformers. “There’s little doubt that.

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