United States Court of Appeals Votes 3-0 To Stay Federal Communications Commission's Order on Reconsideration That Would Have Capped Inmate Rates Below Carriers' Costs

DALLAS, Nov. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Securus Technologies, a leading provider of civil and criminal justice technology solutions for public safety, investigation, corrections and monitoring announced today that the United States Court of Appeals voted 3–0 to Stay the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) most recent Order capping inmate rates.

"The United States Court of Appeals did their job well and unanimously voted to Stay the FCC's most recent order," said Richard A. ("Rick") Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Securus Technologies.

"The criteria that the Court used were:

1. Would the carrier likely prevail in their Appeal?
2. Would the Order, if implemented, cause irreparable harm to the carriers?

"And their response to both questions was – YES," said Smith.

"I can only speculate on the additional reasons why the Order was stayed, but I believe it was not allowed to go into effect because:

1. The rate caps were below costs in some cases;
2. The Court may have believed that the FCC was attempting to reduce commission payments in an arbitrary way;
3. The FCC may not have jurisdiction on setting intrastate rates.

"I believe that the FCC's motivation was noble, i.e., they want lower rates for inmates and friends/family members, and so do we. However, that has to be accomplished in legal ways, with all of the information to craft a good order vetted properly. The FCC missed these important steps," concluded Smith.

ABOUT SECURUS TECHNOLOGIES

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and serving more than 3,450 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies and over 1,200,000 inmates across North America, Securus Technologies is committed to serve and connect by providing emergency response, incident management, public information, investigation, biometric analysis, communication, information management, inmate self-service, and monitoring products and services in order to make our world a safer place to live. Securus Technologies focuses on connecting what matters®. To learn more about our full suite of civil and criminal justice technology solutions, please visit SecurusTechnologies.com.

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SOURCE Securus Technologies, Inc.

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