Search | Prison Phone Justice

Prolonged COVID-19 Visitation Restrictions Net Georgia Jails Over $1.5 Million in Telecom Kickbacks

Article • August 15, 2023 • from PLN August, 2023

Filed under: COVID-19, Cost of Prison Systems, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Video Visitation

Prolonged COVID-19 Visitation Restrictions Net Georgia Jails Over $1.5 Million in Telecom Kickbacks by Jordan Arizmendi by Jordan Arizmendi According to a report by the Georgia Current on April 14, 2023, jails in several of the state’s coastal counties were still profiting by extending COVID-19 visitation bans, forcing detainees and …

Prison Profiteer Who Chairs Christian Seminary Board Called Not Very ‘Christlike’

Article • August 15, 2023 • from PLN August, 2023

Filed under: Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Fraud and Deceit

Prison Profiteer Who Chairs Christian Seminary Board Called Not Very ‘Christlike’ by Kevin Bliss 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 …

FCC Granted Broader Authority to Regulate Prisoner Call Costs

Article • July 15, 2023 • from PLN July, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Global Tel*Link Corp

FCC Granted Broader Authority to Regulate Prisoner Call Costs by Chuck Sharman 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 …

California Appeals Court Affirms Rate Caps and Fee Limitations for Prison Telecoms

Article • July 15, 2023 • from PLN July, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors, Securus

Court of Appeal Makes Its Ruling To begin, the Court noted that the state Supreme Court said in The Ponderosa Telephone Co. v. Public Utilities Com., 36 Cal.App.5th 999 (2019), that there is a &ldquo ...

FCC Requires Prison Telecoms to Provide Services for Deaf Prisoners

Article • July 15, 2023 • from PLN July, 2023

Filed under: Deaf Prisoners, Americans with Disabilities Act, Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors

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. Captioning telephones ...

Telecoms Exploiting Legal Loopholes to Price Gouge Prisoners and Their Families

Article • May 1, 2023 • from PLN May, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors, Securus, Global Tel*Link Corp

Telecoms Exploiting Legal Loopholes to Price Gouge Prisoners and Their Families by Jacob Barrett 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 …

California Makes Calls Free for State Prisoners and Juvenile Detainees, Prohibits Telecom Kickbacks to Prisons and Jails

Article • April 1, 2023 • from PLN April, 2023

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Juvenile Offenses/Offenders, Kickback Scheme

California Makes Calls Free for State Prisoners and Juvenile Detainees, Prohibits Telecom Kickbacks to Prisons and Jails by Benjamin Tschirhart 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 …

Welsh Prisoner Used Phone Hidden in Rectum to Snag Guards with “Flirty” Calls

Article • February 7, 2023

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Guard Misconduct, Cell Searches, Cell Phone Access

Welsh Prisoner Used Phone Hidden in Rectum to Snag Guards with “Flirty” Calls by Jo Ellen Nott 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,” …

New York City Jails Admit Illegally Recording Over 2,200 Attorney-Client Phone Calls

Article • November 30, 2022 • from PLN December, 2022

Filed under: Attorney Calls, Recorded Calls

;it is not the Department’s policy to record confidential attorney calls.” But he called it “worth noting” that all calls include “a pre-recorded admonishment” warning that it is being ...

Maine Caps Price of Phone Calls in State Prisons and Jails

Article • October 31, 2022 • from PLN November, 2022

Filed under: Telephone Rates

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 ...

The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Tablet Advertising That Can Also Issue Discipline

Article • October 31, 2022 • from PLN November, 2022

Filed under: Telephone Access, Telephone Monitoring, Securus

facility, does not have a trustee account, calling account, prepaid account or other means by which to pay for telephone calls,” Securus writes in the introduction to its patent. “The detainee ...

Indiana Caps Phone Rates in State Prisons and Jails

Article • September 1, 2022 • from PLN September, 2022

Filed under: Telephone Rates

Indiana Caps Phone Rates in State Prisons and Jails by Ashleigh Dye by Ashleigh N. Dye On July 1, 2022, a new Indiana law took effect that caps the price charged for phone calls in state prisons and jails. With the change, those held by the state Department of Corrections …

California Court Sides With Securus in Challenge to CDCR Contract, Dealing Only Temporary Setback to GTL

Article • September 1, 2022 • from PLN September, 2022

Filed under: Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Securus, Global Tel*Link Corp

to exceed it for video calls and international telephone calls. In this way, Respondents granted GTL an unfair advantage the California law proscribes.” As the Court determined that a writ of mandate ...

The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Monitoring Online Purchases of Inmates’ Family and Friends

Article • July 15, 2022 • from PLN July, 2022

Filed under: Telephone Monitoring, Securus

on the problem. Earlier this year, Securus received approval for a patent describing a method of “linking controlled-environment facility residents and associated non-resident telephone numbers to ... e ...

Mission Creep: Prison Telecoms Scramble to Extend Their Reach

Article • July 13, 2022 • from PLN July, 2022

Filed under: Telephone Rates, Global Tel*Link Corp

to use the telephone. Flat rate calling has long been the norm in the phone industry that does not rely on exploiting prisoners yet prison telecoms tell the public, regulators and legislators that charging ...

From the Editor

Article • July 13, 2022 • from PLN July, 2022

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access, Censorship

From the Editor by Paul Wright by Paul Wright PLN has been reporting on the prison phone industry for at least the past 30 years, from its inception to its current stranglehold on most means of human contact between prisoners and the outside world. This month’s cover story by Alan …

Prison Phone Giant GTL Cuts Prices in Miami-Dade Jails, But Only After County Taps COVID-19 Relief Funds to Replace Forfeited Kickbacks

Article • June 1, 2022 • from PLN June, 2022

Filed under: COVID-19, Telephone Rates, Global Tel*Link Corp

of incarceration to those who were caged and their families, and prison telecom companies entered the scene. Levine Cava says the county is exploring options to provide free telephone calls to prisoners in its jails ...

Prison Telecom Giant GTL Agrees to $67 Million Settlement in Class-Action Over Inactive Account Seizure Policy

Article • April 1, 2022 • from PLN April, 2022

Filed under: Settlements, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Global Tel*Link Corp

to ViaPath Technologies on January 4, 2022, provides telephone service to prisoners in almost 2,000 prisons and jails spanning all 50 states, holding a monopoly in most, just as its major competitors do. [See ...

$900,000 Settlement in Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Securus Recorded California Prisoner-Attorney Calls

Article • February 1, 2022 • from PLN February, 2022

Filed under: Settlements, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring, Class Actions

$900,000 Settlement in Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Securus Recorded California Prisoner-Attorney Calls by David Reutter Company Walks From Similar Case in Maine by David M. Reutter ...

Qualified Immunity Granted in Suit Challenging Policy of “Checking-In” on Nevada Prisoner’s Legal Calls

Article • February 1, 2022 • from PLN February, 2022

Filed under: Attorney Calls, Electronic Communictions Privacy Act, Immunity - Absolute and Qualified

Qualified Immunity Granted in Suit Challenging Policy of “Checking-In” on Nevada Prisoner’s Legal Calls by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On July 8, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refused a request to rehear en banc a decision by a three-judge panel of the Court …