And since intrastate calls represent more than 80 percent of calls to and from prisons and jails, the FCC’s caps on prices don’t cover most calls in the United States. This means that a family member calling a loved one incarcerated on the other side of the country may be paying less than someone making a call to a prison located just a short drive away. Generally speaking, the prices people pay for phone calls has dropped since 1996, when Congress last overhauled the country’s telecommunications laws and spelled out the relevant authority for calls to incarcerated people, too.