EL: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn called it "the clearest, most egregious case of market failure I have seen."
JB: It's hard to disagree.
EL: It was a billion dollar racket. Phone companies and public authorities made out like bandits. Families had to choose between food, medicine or phone calls with people they love.
The good news is that the FCC just voted to curtail that practice. My recent oped is about that win. I credit it as an example of "the government taking the side of the people against an industry."
JB: Before we talk about the near-miracle of a favorable government decision, fill us in on how this truly egregious situation came about in the first place.
EL: It was a long haul. I was in it at the outset, part of a team of lawyers that challenged the monopolies in court. We brought multiple anti-trust lawsuits alleging restraint of trade, since the bill-payers are legally barred from choosing lower-cost options. We lost the anti-trust claims but the case was remanded to the FCC to consider the rates in its rulemaking
capacity.
It lingered on the FCC docket for a decade.
JB: That's awful.
EL: It was rescued by Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, along with a new round of lawyering spearheaded by Lee Petro of Drinker, Biddle, and loads of street heat organized by the Prison Policy Initiative (I'm president of the board) and the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice.
JB: I can't believe it took more than ten years.
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