l prisoners' calls are recorded. Prisons hire outside firms to manage the calls, the charges, and the recordings. The largest prisoner telephony providers are Securus Technologies and Global Tel Link, also known as GTL. All of these systems place the calls using VoIP technology. Many of these providers charge prisoners' families rates many times higher than those made from home or business telephones. For example, they tack on a surcharge of up to $3.16 for the first minute of the call plus $0.16 for each additional minute. Various organizations have sued these providers on the basis that the rates are exorbitantly high. The most recent suit, a class action suit against county prisons, was filed in May 2018 at the Suffolk Superior Court in Massachusetts on the basis that these charges amounted to kickbacks to the www.TechnicalPDF.com prisons, which were paid commissions for these calls. Prisoners calls in state prisons cost only $0.10 per minute with no surcharge for the first minute. The class action suit is against the county jails, which are paid commissions by these telecommunications companies. County prison officials justify these rates by claiming that without these extra funds they would not be able to offer drug addiction and educational programs to inmates. However, when asked, prisoners' families responded that they would prefer lower rates even if some programs were deleted or paid for by higher taxes. The other issue, in addition to high costs, are claims by prisoners' families that not infrequently calls are cut off and prisoners must make a second or third call and pay the initial minute fee of $3.16 a second and third time. Because many prisoners' families have low incomes, receiving these calls is a burden for them. In another lawsuit, the telecommunications companies sued the FCC stating that because VoIP calls are not regulated they can charge whatever fees they deem appropriate. The outcome of this lawsuit is still pending a decision by the judge. In 2015, the FCC had set limits on charges for