There are families who have to pay up to $3,000 per year just to keep in touch with their family members in prison.

Why? So corporations running prison phone lines can make a buck.

These corporations -- including Global Tech-Link Corp and Securus Technologies -- win lucrative contracts to provide phone services for inmates by promising kickbacks to local and state authorities. Then they pass the cost on to families and inmates, who have to pay up to $12.95 for a 15 minute call.

That's over 20 times the cost of a local phone call.

In just a few days, the FCC is making a landmark decision to regulate prices. If we don't want corporations to keep charging exorbitant rates for a phone calls, we need to act now.

Sign the petition calling on the FCC to place caps on the amount prison contractors can charge families and inmates to keep in touch.

Prisons are meant to serve the public -- not corporations looking to profit off of some of the most vulnerable people in society. Research shows that inmates are more likely to successfully integrate back into their communities if they stay in touch with their families while serving their time. So why are corporations trying to make it more difficult?

By making it harder for inmates to stay in touch with families -- who are mostly poor and of color -- they are putting vulnerable communities at risk by placing obstacles to the rehabilitation of these inmates.

Private prison corporations have been trying to do everything they can to profit off incarceration for too long. SumOfUs members across the country have been key to fighting to regulate the industry for years, and together, we're holding corporations to account. Let's come together now and remind the FCC that even people behind bars are human beings, and force them to regulate prison phone calls once and for all.

Sign the petition to call on the FCC to regulate this multi-billion dollar business that is based on exploiting families and inmates.

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More information:

The High Cost of Calling the Imprisoned, The New York Times, March 30, 2015

Rates and Kickbacks, PrisonPhoneJustice.org