An FCC ruling has cut prison phone bills in half, disrupting the correctional telecommunications industry

• Three companies dominate the billion-dollar correctional telecommunications industry 
• The FCC voted Thursday to lower phone and video call rates for prisons and jails nationwide 
• Poor families of color are disproportionately affected.

For decades the correctional telecommunications industry has made up to $1.4 billion a year off of a customer base of incarcerated people who have had no other choice but to rely on their services to connect with loved ones. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules to limit what advocates have long called exploitation of the country's poorest families.