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 …

Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act-Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services, 2023

Brief • July 26, 2023

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

, as well as “differences in costs” based on facility size or “other characteristics.”7 It also allows the Commission to “use industry-wide average costs of telephone service and advanced communications ...

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 ...

Americans for Immigrant Justice v. US Dept of Homeland Security, DC, Memorandum Opinion, Conditions of Confinement, 2023

Brief • July 6, 2023

Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Telephone Access, Detention - Generally

. at *3. AIJ also claims that detainees “must make calls from telephones located in the open housing unit, which are within earshot of other detained individuals and guards;” detainees are not permitted ...

Americans for Immigrant Justice v. US Dept of Homeland Security, DC, Order Granting and Denying Motion to Sever and Transfer Venue, Conditions of Confinement, 2023

Brief • July 6, 2023

Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Telephone Access, Detention - Generally

Americans for Immigrant Justice v. US Dept of Homeland Security, DC, Order Granting and Denying Motion to Sever and Transfer Venue, Conditions of Confinement, 2023 Case 1:22-cv-03118-CKK Document 102 Filed 07/06/23 Page 1 of 2 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AMERICANS FOR IMMIGRANT JUSTICE, et al., …

CA Utilities Commission Fee Award 6-19-23

Publication • June 19, 2023

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

communications services serving people with disabilities. As discussed above, IPCS providers providing such services are telephone corporations and public utilities and as such are subject to our jurisdiction ...

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 …

FTC-Unfair of Deceptive Fees ANPR, Feb. 2023

Publication • February 8, 2023

Filed under: Money/Property, Telephone Rates

Fed. Comm’cns Comm’n, “Telephone Service for Incarcerated Individuals” (Dec. 20, 2022), available at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/telephone-service-incarcerated-individuals; see also Wagner ...

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,” …

Linear v. Securus Technologies Dba Jpay LLC, WA, Statement of Claims, Unfair Charges, 2022

Brief • December 30, 2022

Filed under: JPay, Inc., Telephone Rates

By: s/ Roger Townsend Roger M. Townsend, WSBA # 25525 Mynor R. Lopez, WSBA #59918 1000 Second Avenue, Suite 3670 Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 652-8660 Telephone (206) 652-8290 Facsimile bdonckers@bjtlegal.com ...

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 ...

Prison Phone Rights- Testimony of Paul Wright-Sept. 2022

Publication • September 19, 2022

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates, Telephone Monitoring

“stands as a 9 sharp contrast to traditional voice-only calling services, where the return on correctional facility 10 investments is largely limited to the cost and reliability of telephone calls ...

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 ...