At a time when in-person visits and physical mail are disappearing in jails, the paid 'alternatives' are costly.

New data from Michigan shows video calls costing up to a dollar a minute.

Companies are setting prices based purely on profit-seeking.

Today, with our partners are Fines and Fees Justice Center, we delivered over 6,000 signatures on a petition calling for free prison communication in NY to the Governor.

Governor Kathy Hochul, we’re asking again, can the women of NY count on you to include free prison calls in the budget?

UPDATE: The court denied Corizon’s proposed settlement in its bankruptcy case & denied motion to dismiss.

This is a loss for Corizon, which has been told 2X that its attempt to underpay incarcerated families & shield itself from liabilities is unacceptable. The fight continues.

Incarcerated workers are forced to produce more than $2Bn each year in goods & commodities every year––many of which are items we use every day––and are paid just pennies, if anything at all.

Visit EndTheException.com today to learn more & take action.

Years of activism by Worth Rises and others have brought Securus to the brink of bankruptcy. The campaign to take down the nation's largest prison telecom company could offer a roadmap for tackling other exploitative profiteers in the prison space. theappeal.org/securus-bankru…

Making prison communication FREE supports:
- Public safety
- Economic mobility
- Gender equity for women
- Children's wellbeing
- Second chances

Governor Kathy Hochul Sen. Stewart-Cousins Carl E. Heastie, can New Yorkers count on you to make prison calls free?
timesunion.com/state/article/…

Governor Kathy Hochul has the chance to make prisons call free! which wouldn’t only save Black & Latino women $20 million annually, it’s better for EVERYONE because incarcerated ppl who can communicate w/ their loved ones outside are more likely to successfully reenter society

RHODE ISLAND: Families are spending almost $1 million each year to stay in touch with their incarcerated loved ones. 1 in 3 are going into debt as a result. If you live in Rhode Island, take action NOW to connect families by visiting connectfamiliesnow.com/rhodeisland!

New York we have an incredible opportunity to lead with states like CA in making phone calls free for incarcerated people, ending exploitation, and connecting families.

This is smart policy. Tell Governor Kathy Hochul to support it.

Lawyers report that people who are incarcerated at #NewYork ’s Metropolitan Detention Center are being served food that is infested with maggots—putting their health at risk.

No one should have to endure these dehumanizing conditions. nydailynews.com/2024/03/30/mag…

A headline that will stop you in your tracks: The Private Prisons Industry Is Changing What Constitutes “Food”

This important piece highlights the detrimental impact of the predatory for-profit prison food industry: filtermag.org/private-prison…

It's rough out there if you are a predatory prison telecom that's been preying on our communities for years. But what do they say? You made you're bed, now you have to lay in it.

ViaPath (formerly GTL), you're up.

P.S. - We are urging the FCC to exclude security costs from what vendors can charge families when they issue new rate caps this year. Monitoring and other surveillance doesn't benefit prison telecom consumers and shouldn't be a cost they bear.

When I hear the same argument, with no roots in reality, start moving from one state to another, I know it's the industry. Some times they're explicitly lobbying, like Securus is in NY right now, and sometimes they're whispering in the ears of correctional officials.

For all these reasons, it is no surprise that not one jurisdiction that has made prison and/or jail calls free has distinctly allocated budget for increased monitoring. And no one is running back to their electeds asking them to do so. It is simply not necessary.

Finally, the monitoring of prison and jail calls is increasingly being conducted by technology and not humans. Yes, it's wrong and scary, but it also substantially undermines the argument that more calls require more monitoring costs.

And these security service costs are baked into every compensation structure these telecom vendors offer, whether per minute, per phone line, or per person. Which means, they already account for increases in call volume that may result from making calls free, where relevant.

For example, in NY, Securus charges 3.6 cents per minute for calls. In IL, Securus charges 0.9 cents per minute for calls. IL is NOT accepting an inferior level of security services to pay 4x less. It just better negotiated rates for people in its custody.

Predatory prison telecoms charge high rates for calls and use the concept of security to justify them. Yet, their rates vary dramatically from one jurisdiction to another. Why? Not because their services wildly differ, but because some states are better at negotiating.