by Kevin W. Bliss
Members of Princeton Theological Seminarians for Peace and Justice (SPJ) sent a letter on March 14, 2023, calling for resignation of seminary Board of Trustees Chairman Michael Fisch. After learning Fisch’s hedge fund, American Securities, owns prison telecom giant ViaPath, the group complained that the way the firm profits off exploiting prisoners – many people of color – runs counter to the teachings of Jesus Christ, which their group should be exemplifying.
Dozens of seminary alumni signed the letter, including Rev. J. Amos Caley, leader of New Jersey’s Reformed Church of Highland Park; Pastor Erich Kussman of St. Bartholomew Lutheran Church in Trenton; as well as SPJ moderator and seminarian Angel Nalbega. They demanded seminary President Jonathan Walton ensure more transparency and greater accountability for Board members, finding it especially concerning that what Fisch and other members do appears contrary to SPJ’s mission.
“We are appalled,” read the letter, “that the board of trustees is chaired by someone who makes profit from conditions we have been taught to work against and have been trained at the Seminary to mitigate in our roles as pastors, chaplains, and social workers.”
ViaPath is a privately held company known until ...
by Douglas Ankney
On February 1, 2023, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate Division, affirmed the denial by the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) of challenges to rate caps and fee limitations brought by Securus Technologies LLC (Securus) and Network Communications International Corporation (NCIC) over their contracts in the state’s prisons and jails.
In 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began regulating incarcerated person calling services (IPCS) due to the lack of competition among providers. By 2016, the FCC had adopted regulations capping per-minute rates at 13 cents in prisons and in jails a range of 19-31 cents, depending on the average daily population (ADP). Caps were also placed on automated payment fees – at $3.00 per transaction – and “live-agent” fees at $5.95 per transaction, as well as fees for paper statements at $2.00 each. IPCS providers were also prohibited from adding any fee to that charged by third-party financial institutions for processing single-call transactions, usually when the recipient of a collect call from a prisoner does not have an account with the IPCS provider at that facility.
However, the caps on intrastate calls were voided when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the ...
by Chuck Sharman
On March 16, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to begin rule-making to implement the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. Named after a determined woman who tirelessly campaigned to lower her bill to call her imprisoned grandson – which sometimes exceeded $1 per minute – the law passed Congress in November 2022, expanding the FCC’s regulatory power to cover intrastate calls.
Since 2014, when Congress initially granted the FCC authority to cap interstate prison call costs, prices have decreased to approximately 12-14 cents per minute. However, the limits did not apply to calls made within a state, which account for 80% of the total. The new law closed that loophole, over the predictable objections of companies that have sprung up to provide what they call “inmate calling services” (ICS).
The two largest ICS firms are ViaPath – formerly Global Tel*Link (GTL) – and Aventiv Technologies, which owns both Securus and JPay. Aventiv eventually came out in support of the new law, but Chief Communications and Community Engagement Officer Margita Thompson emphasized the need to protect the firm’s investment in setting up and delivering phone and video calls in high-security prison and jail ...
by Jordan Arizmendi
Life in prison is difficult for anyone, but especially for deaf people. Without a video phone or teletypewriter (TTY), a deaf person cannot communicate with loved ones by phone. Under a new rule that takes effect in 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will require prison phone companies to provide video communication services for prisoners who are deaf and hard of hearing. Announced on September 29, 2022, the new order applies to prisons, jails, immigration detention, juvenile detention and mental health lockups across the nation.
Under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., the deaf have a right to communication “as effective as” that enjoyed by others. Prisoners must navigate complicated prison bureaucracy, besides being able to comprehend what happens around them. Without special accommodation, a deaf prisoner unable to read English would find it almost impossible to obtain medical care, file a grievance, understand a disciplinary write-up or even read a prison handbook.
The new rule covers point-to-point video calls, which allow direct communication between two signing people. It also covers video relay services, a three-way system that allows a deaf user to sign to a speaking interpreter. ...
by Jacob Barrett
According to a report published by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) on December 15, 2022, for-profit telecom companies are using loopholes in the law to price-gouge prisoners and their families on the cost of phone calls and video visits.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has slowly set regulatory guidelines which have resulted in significant reductions in phone call rates in prisons and jails. [See: PLN, Sep. 2021, p.12.] But firms providing these services have found ways to bypass the restrictions.
The PPI report found four classes of abusive fee tactics which the FCC is trying to reign in. First, the FCC has issued an order which should take effect sometime in 2023, setting provider fees at $5.95. The cap will stop for-profit companies from colluding with Moneygram and Western Union to inflate payment fees.
Second, the FCC has opened for public comment the possibility of banning “double dipping” fees. At least six providers charge up to 21% over the $3 cap on automated fees by adding a “pass through” charge to recover the credit card processor’s fee in the transaction. This is like getting home from dining out to find the restaurant padded your tab with ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On September 29, 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed S.B. 1008 into law, barring government agencies in the state from collecting any part of the revenue from providing calls in prisons and jails. It also makes calls completely free at state prisons and juvenile detention facilities.
State law already mandated service quality levels by telecom providers for the general public, which the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is authorized to enforce. The new bill extends that protection to people held within the California carceral system.
Authored primarily by Sen. Josh Becker (D-San Mateo), the bill was introduced in the Senate in February 2022. It passed on August 29, 2022, with the affirmative votes of 54 Democratic senators, overcoming 15 Republican votes against the bill.
Addressing the telecom industry behind cell bars, the legislation first recognizes the importance of social connection, especially in the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders: They are granted completely free calls. So are adults in state prisons. State prisoners and youth in residential placement or detention centers must now be provided calls at no charge either to the person making or the person receiving them, “subject to the operational discretion” of the state Department ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
A former guard and a former nurse at a prison in the United Kingdom – who both fell for “flirty” calls on a contraband cellphone from a “Romeo inmate,” British tabloids proclaimed – are now paying for their involvement with the convicted drug dealer. The one-time nurse is serving a six-month sentence handed down on October 18, 2022, while the former guard is awaiting trial set for September 2023.
The prisoner, Harri Jay Pullen, 25, began serving a five-year sentence in 2019 for his part in a gang distributing cocaine and heroin in South Wales. Pullen who is from Newport, was first sent to HMP Parc, where he met the nurse, Elyse Hibbs, 25, and guard Ruth Shmylo, 25. When prison officials suspected he was engaging in romantic relationships with staff, Pullen was transferred to HMP Manchester. It was during transfer that officials found a small cellphone tucked up in his anal cavity and discovered that he had used it to carry on the forbidden relationships with the two women.
Before he was transferred, Pullen had acquired the nickname “Romeo” for his manipulative ways with female staff. Hibbs, who was 23 at the time, met the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On the last day of 2021, the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) revealed a stunning privacy breach: Over 500 detainees in city jails had their calls to their attorneys recorded. Worse, the recordings were then turned over to prosecutors.
The Constitution guarantees the privacy of these calls. The breaches were disclosed to three public defender groups in response to requests made under the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). PLN obtained copies with its own FOIL request in April 2022.
The three groups — New York County Defender Services, the Legal Aid Society, and the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem — had filed “do not record” requests with DOC. Each request listed the phone numbers of their attorneys. DOC was supposed to forward those numbers to Securus Technologies, its privately contracted phone service provider. Securus was then supposed to make sure that no calls placed from the numbers were recorded.
However, the company said lists were not properly forwarded. DOC countered that Securus had the numbers but recorded them in the wrong place.
As early as April 2018, the Harlem group faxed its request to DOC. But when asked about it, DOC said it ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On April 15, 2022, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) approved H.P. 853, a new law capping the cost of calls in state prisons and county jails. Effective October 1, 2022, calls may not exceed the federal rate of twelve cents per minute in prisons and twenty-one cents per minute in jails.
Though it won’t directly lower call costs for state prisoners — the state Department of Corrections (DOC) already caps their per-minute rate at nine cents — the new law provides them with 30 free weekly minutes for attorney calls and 30 more minutes for other calls, anytime their account balance falls below ten dollars.
Randall Liberty, DOC’s ironically named commissioner, said that for prisoners, contact with families is “critically important to a successful journey through incarceration with us.”
Maine Recovery Advocacy Project director Courtney Allen, whose work with those struggling with addiction means she knows as well as anyone what sort of “journey” prisoners are on, nevertheless agreed that facilitating communication with friends and family is “more important than anything that you can do for people who are inside.”
But Liberty also fretted that the price cap could affect “programming” like weightlifting and television for the ...
by Dave Maas
Imagine you’ve been arrested and are sitting in county lock-up. You need to make arrangements for bail, a lawyer, and a caretaker for your kids or pets. Maybe you need someone to bring your prescription or you need to talk to your AA sponsor. On top of that, you’re traumatized by the invasive booking process and scared to the bone of what might happen to you, all too aware that many people wind up injured or dead while awaiting trial.
An officer hands you a digital tablet and assures you that you can use it to communicate to sort out your affairs. It’s a glimmer of a lifeline … but then you try to use the device.
A pop-up opens on the tablet’s screen, and you’re forced to watch a commercial for a shady bail bond firm before being allowed to access the video call app. When your family member picks up, you both have to sit through another advertisement. When you finally get to talk, both you and your relative have the logos of a local law firm hovering over your shoulder, like the worst Zoom background ever. Throughout the call, your conversation is interrupted with ...
