Arkansas Jail Cutting Inmate Phone Service Entirely March 30
Service cutoff is days before a FCC prison call rate caps set to take effect for small jails
WASHINGTON, March 8, 2025 – When federal rules to lower jail phone rates take effect next month, Baxter County, Arkansas, won’t be offering cheaper calls to inmates — they won’t be offering phone service at all.
State Broadband
Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery announced that the county’s 100-person jail will eliminate phone service entirely on March 30 — just days before the Federal Communications Commission’s new rate caps go into effect for jails with fewer than 1,000 detainees.
“Due to new regulations being put in place by the [FCC] that begin on April 1, the Baxter County Sheriff's Office has determined that it will no longer be feasible to keep and maintain the inmate phone system in use at the Baxter County Detention Center,” Montgomery wrote in a statement.
