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Furious at the FCC, Arkansas jail cancels inmate phone calls rather than lower rates | One angry sheriff takes on the feds.


One angry sheriff takes on the feds.

The cause of Montgomery's wrath, and of his March 30 date, is the Federal Communications Commission, which set an April 1, 2025, deadline for smaller jails to lower the obscene rates of inmate phone calls. The rates are high in part because extra security is required for inmate communications services, but the system had also become a way for local agencies to make money by charging vendors a "site commission payment." In 2018, however, when Baxter County wanted to expand its jail and didn't have the cash, officials found a way to make it feasible by asking voters to approve a 1-cent sales tax collected between April and September of that year.

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