Search | Prison Phone Justice

California Court of Appeal Upholds Dismissal of Challenge to Excessive Jail Phone Rates as Unconstitutional Tax

Article • July 1, 2020 • from PLN July, 2020

Filed under: Telephone Rates

of appeal noted that “the general rule is that a person may not sue to recover excess taxes paid by someone else. Plaintiffs may have paid exorbitant charges to the telephone provider, but they did ...

Company Hawking Prison Phone Monitoring Technology as Way to Discover Coronavirus Infections

Article • June 1, 2020 • from PLN June, 2020

Filed under: COVID-19, Telephone Monitoring

Company Hawking Prison Phone Monitoring Technology as Way to Discover Coronavirus Infections by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke A Los Angeles-based company has been selling to jails and prison systems phone-monitoring technology that searches for keywords, touting it as a way to discover COVID-19 infections early. LEO Technologies developed the …

Prison Officials Limit Prisoner Communications During COVID-19 Crisis

Article • June 1, 2020 • from PLN June, 2020

Filed under: Telephone Access, Video Visitation

access to telephones and emails, solely to mitigate the spread of the virus from multiple people touching keyboards and handsets,” a move strongly condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union ...

The Ongoing Push to End Outrageous Prison Phone Charges

Article • April 1, 2020 • from PLN April, 2020

Filed under: Telephone Rates, State Legislation

The Ongoing Push to End Outrageous Prison Phone Charges by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso Groups in several states are drawing increased attention to the high cost of jail and prison phone rates, and pushing to reduce or eliminate such charges. HRDC, the publisher of PLN, has been a …

Long-running Maricopa County, Arizona Jail Lawsuit Ends

Article • March 4, 2020 • from PLN March, 2020

Filed under: Medical, Overcrowding, Telephones, Mental Health

. Hill -- now Graves v. Penzone, the name of the county’s current sheriff -- began. Initially the case involved access to attorneys through telephone availability and overcrowded conditions ...

Oregon Lawmakers Prohibit Prison and Jail Telephone Kickbacks

Article • March 3, 2020 • from PLN March, 2020

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Oregon Lawmakers Prohibit Prison and Jail Telephone Kickbacks by Mark Wilson by Mark Wilson This isn’t just an issue of economics,” said Oregon Senator Sara Gelser, the chief ...

Securus Technologies Rebrands as Aventiv

Article • January 9, 2020 • from PLN January, 2020

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Securus Technologies Rebrands as Aventiv by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss On October 8, 2019, a corporate reorganization listed Aventiv Technologies as the parent company of Securus Technologies, Inc., JPay and AllPaid (formerly known as GovPayNet). Securus has a long history of providing prison and jail phone services, and price …

Lawsuit Proceeds Over Conditions at Orange County, California Jail

Article • December 9, 2019 • from PLN December, 2019

Filed under: Telephones, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring

Barnes was granted class-action status in September 2019 to include all detainees at the Orange County Jail (OCJ) whose telephone conversations with their attorneys were illegally recorded by GTL, the jail ...

Alaska Supreme Court Upholds Prisoner Visitation Denial

Article • November 25, 2019

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Telephones

” and “displaying wedding rings within a secure area of the facility,” along with recordings of over 2,000 telephone calls between them within a two-year period, some involving sexual ...

New York: Prisoners Have No Expectation to Privacy During Jail Phone Calls

Article • November 5, 2019 • from PLN November, 2019

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Monitoring

on the calls since he was a pretrial detainee and had not been convicted of a crime. The trial court, after hearing from both sides, allowed the telephonic evidence to be introduced. The court found that Diaz ...

Oregon Prisoner’s Use of Another Prisoner’s Phone PIN Constitutes Identity Theft

Article • November 5, 2019 • from PLN November, 2019

Filed under: Telephones, Cell Phone Access

of the crime of identity theft because he used the personal identification numbers (PINs) of two other prisoners to access a jail telephone. Michael Steven Connolly was confined at the Multnomah County Detention ...

San Francisco to Cut Costs for Jail Phone Calls, Commissary Sales

Article • October 4, 2019 • from PLN October, 2019

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates

Justice Project’s director, Anne Stuhl, are also firmly on board with Breed’s vision to ease the financial costs imposed on prisoners and their families. Currently a telephone call costs $0.14 ...

Illinois Prison Phone Rates are Lowest Following Grassroots Activism

Article • August 6, 2019 • from PLN August, 2019

Filed under: Organizing, Lobbying, Protests, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates

;Prison telecom companies buy telephone time for fractions of a penny per minute and can make massive profits by allowing calls for a penny a minute, in part because they gouge family members with ancillary ...

Imagine Pleading Guilty Because You Can’t Afford to Call Your Lawyer

Article • July 2, 2019 • from PLN July, 2019

Filed under: Attorneys, Telephones, Telephone Rates, Attorney Calls

Imagine Pleading Guilty Because You Can’t Afford to Call Your Lawyer by Victoria Law by Victoria Law, Truthout Imagine paying $20.12 for a 15-minute phone call. That’s how much a call from the Jennings Adult Correctional Facility in Missouri costs. In 2013, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set rate caps …

Major Prison Telecom Merger Canceled; Victory for Campaign for Prison Phone Justice!

Article • May 3, 2019 • from PLN May, 2019

Filed under: Private Prisons, Telephones, Telephone Rates

industry, but more needs to be done when just two companies, Securus and Global Tel*Link, control around 80% of the detention facility telephone lines,” said HRDC executive director Paul Wright. &ldquo ...

Prison Policy Initiative Issues Report on State of Prison Phone Justice

Article • May 3, 2019 • from PLN May, 2019

Filed under: Statistics/Trends, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Attorney Calls

Prison Policy Initiative Issues Report on State of Prison Phone Justice by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke  On February 11, 2019, the non-profit Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) issued a report on the “State of Phone Justice,” noting progress on reducing state prison phone rates but fewer reforms in local jails, …

Cell Phones Sold in Commissary at South Carolina Jail

Article • May 3, 2019 • from PLN May, 2019

Filed under: Commissary, Cell Phone Access

Cell Phones Sold in Commissary at South Carolina Jail by Scott Grammer by Scott Grammer There is a surprising item for sale in the commissary at the Union County Jail in South Carolina: cell phones. The $100 phones can be used to text and make calls between the hours of …

Federal Circuit Upholds BOP Guard’s Termination Despite 1,265-Day Delay

Article • April 22, 2019

Filed under: Telephones, Guards/Staff, Employee Litigation, Guard Unions, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights

Federal Circuit Upholds BOP Guard’s Termination Despite 1,265-Day Delay by Mark Wilson by Mark Wilson The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the termination of a federal prison guard, finding that he waived any claim of prejudice from a 1,265-day delay between commencement of the investigation …

Lawsuit Challenging Phone Kickbacks at Massachusetts Jail Survives Motion to Dismiss

Article • April 2, 2019 • from PLN April, 2019

Filed under: Telephone Rates

Lawsuit Challenging Phone Kickbacks at Massachusetts Jail Survives Motion to Dismiss by In December 2018, a Massachusetts federal district court refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the cost of phone calls made by prisoners at the Bristol County House of Correction (BCHC). [See: PLN, Sept. 2018, p.36]. Before the court …

Securus Files Suit Alleging FDOC Improperly Entered into Prison Phone Contract

Article • April 2, 2019 • from PLN April, 2019

Filed under: Private Contractors, Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates

be conducive to obtaining the $150 million in value-added services the department has attempted to obtain through the inmate telephone contract, such increases do not assist with – and actually thwart ...