The FCC is obligated to determine if a telecommunications service is required to file tariffs:
"Tariffs contain the rates, terms and conditions of certain services provided by telecommunications carriers. The most common tariff filed at the FCC is for interstate local access service. These tariffs are filed by local exchange carriers, or LECs.
Long-distance companies and others pay the rates set out in these tariffs to LECs for access to local networks at the originating and/or terminating ends of a long-distance call. Access services include:
* End User access, which mainly recovers the Subscriber Line Charge, the Access Recovery Charge, and the Universal Service Fund Charge. ...
Except in very limited circumstances, long-distance companies are not permitted to file tariffs for long-distance service because the FCC has determined that the long-distance market is competitive. Like long-distance service, many broadband services have been detariffed. ...
Tariffs must be just and reasonable and may not be unreasonably discriminatory under Sections 201(a) and 202(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended." [0]
(Emphasis mine.)
If the long-distance market for prisoners is not competitive, the FCC is well within its remit to demand that rates for those services be just, reasonable, and not unreasonably discriminatory.
> Given that not even the 13th amendment applies to prisoners...
Rights and privileges are severable. This means that loss of one does not imply loss of others.
linksbro has a reply to that comment that you seem to have missed. It's pretty direct: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10439553
Additionally:
The FCC is obligated to determine if a telecommunications service is required to file tariffs:
"Tariffs contain the rates, terms and conditions of certain services provided by telecommunications carriers. The most common tariff filed at the FCC is for interstate local access service. These tariffs are filed by local exchange carriers, or LECs.
Long-distance companies and others pay the rates set out in these tariffs to LECs for access to local networks at the originating and/or terminating ends of a long-distance call. Access services include:
* End User access, which mainly recovers the Subscriber Line Charge, the Access Recovery Charge, and the Universal Service Fund Charge. ...
Except in very limited circumstances, long-distance companies are not permitted to file tariffs for long-distance service because the FCC has determined that the long-distance market is competitive. Like long-distance service, many broadband services have been detariffed. ...
Tariffs must be just and reasonable and may not be unreasonably discriminatory under Sections 201(a) and 202(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended." [0]
(Emphasis mine.)
If the long-distance market for prisoners is not competitive, the FCC is well within its remit to demand that rates for those services be just, reasonable, and not unreasonably discriminatory.
> Given that not even the 13th amendment applies to prisoners...
Rights and privileges are severable. This means that loss of one does not imply loss of others.
[0] https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/tariffs