Excessive inmate telephone and video service rates thus weaken the family and community ties that are necessary for successful reentry into society by persons who were formerly incarcerated and the reduction in crime resulting from successful reentry. (8) Innocent citizens are paying excessive telephone and video service charges simply due to having a family member or loved one who is incarcerated. (9) The rates for calls from correctional institutions are some of the highest rates in the United States. (10) Information compiled by the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission shows that the high rates are due in part to the lack of competition between companies that provide long distance inmate telephone and video service to correctional institutions. (11) There are no competitive forces providing incentives for those carriers to lower prices or operate efficiently because, unlike the mass market, only one carrier is typically permitted to provide long distance inmate telephone and video service within each correctional institution. (12) High calling rates also are due in part to commissions that carriers pay to correctional institution administrators for the exclusive right to provide long distance inmate telephone and video service in a correctional facility. In some cases, such commissions can account for as much as 60 percent of the total revenues received from the use of prison payphones. (13) The collection of such commissions by correctional institution administrators and State departments of correction based upon interstate telecommunications revenues is a burden on interstate commerce. (14) Due to the lack of competition for telephone and video services within correctional institutions, families of people in prison, many of whom have low incomes, cannot choose the long distance carrier with the lowest calling rates and must pay the excessive rates charged by the carrier having the exclusive right to provide long distance service to the correctional institution from which the call originates.