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The Succession Battle for a Prison Empire
Article • December 1, 2025 • from PLN December, 2025
Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors
The Succession Battle for a Prison Empire by Katya Schwenk by Katya Schwenk The yacht is moored at the mouth of the Miami River, in the long shadows of the city’s luxury hotels and high-­rises. It is of Italian design: sleek, imposing, with a flybridge and sundeck and five cabins, …
FCC Backtracks on 2024 Order to Cut 
Prison Phone and Video Rates by Half
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Filed under: Telephone Rates, Video Visitation, Private Phone Contractors, Securus
FCC Backtracks on 2024 Order to Cut Prison Phone and Video Rates by Half by On June 30, the Federal Communications Commission announced a two-year postponement of a rule to lower the price of phone and video calls in prisons and jails. As PLN reported, the FCC voted in 2024 …
HRDC Collaborates on Prison Telecom Cost Report 
to Washington Lawmakers
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Filed under: Electronic Tablets, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates
HRDC Collaborates on Prison Telecom Cost Report to Washington Lawmakers by Chuck Sharman A report on prison telecom costs presented to state lawmakers in Washington on December 13, 2024, showed dramatic decreases nationwide in the price of calls from prisons and jails over the past decade. A similar drop was …
Ohio Sued by Non-Profit Law Firm 
for Opening Prisoner Legal Mail
Article • July 15, 2025 • from PLN July, 2025
Filed under: Attorney Client, Legal Materials, Attorney Calls, Legal Mail
Ohio Sued by Non-Profit Law Firm for Opening Prisoner Legal Mail by On May 6, 2025, the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a non-profit law firm, filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) over the practice of intercepting mail between prisoners and their attorneys. The …
Guards Used “Blast Grenades” to Break Up Mob Attack 
in California Prison
Article • July 15, 2025 • from PLN July, 2025
Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Prisoner Privileges, Telephone Access
Guards Used “Blast Grenades” to Break Up Mob Attack in California Prison by On June 6, 2025, Julian Mendez, 46, a prisoner on death row at the Kern Valley State Prison in Riverside County, California, was killed by inmate Mario Renteria, 36, using a makeshift weapon, KGET in Bakersfield reported. …
JPay Loses Bid to Revoke Class Certification in Washington Prisoners’ Challenge to Crummy Products and Service
Article • July 15, 2025 • from PLN July, 2025
Filed under: Electronic Tablets, Computers, Telephone Rates, Securus
JPay Loses Bid to Revoke Class Certification in Washington Prisoners’ Challenge to Crummy Products and Service by Over five years ago, in May 2020, Washington prisoners Michael Linear and Lonnie Burton filed a complaint in state court against prison telecom JPay LLC, which held the exclusive contract with the state …
Free Calls in Massachusetts Lead to 
Defunded Prison Programs
Article • July 15, 2025 • from PLN July, 2025
Filed under: Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors
Free Calls in Massachusetts Lead to Defunded Prison Programs by In December 2023, Massachusetts became the fifth state to provide free phone calls in its prisons and the first in all local jails. Video calling and e-messaging were also made available at no cost [See: PLN, Mar. 2024, p. 15]. …
GTL/ViaPath Ordered to Pay $3 Million for Violations 
of Consumer Protection Laws
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
Filed under: Telephone Rates, Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing, etc., Global Tel*Link Corp
GTL/ViaPath Ordered to Pay $3 Million for Violations of Consumer Protection Laws by Global Tel*Link (GTL), doing business as ViaPath Technologies, is one of the nation’s largest providers of carceral communications services, including phones, video calling, and e-messaging. Its subsidiaries include Telmate, LLC and TouchPay Holdings, LLC; the latter provides …
Smart Communications Files for Bankruptcy Protection
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
Filed under: Telephones, Mail, Legal Mail, Private Phone Contractors
Smart Communications Files for Bankruptcy Protection by Smart Communications Holding, Inc., provides a variety of communications services in prisons and jails nationwide, including phone calls, video calling, tablets and e-messaging. It’s best known for its mail scanning program, MailGuard, which digitizes correspondence sent to prisoners and provides the scans on …
A Song for Condemned Alabama Prisoner
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
Filed under: Witnesses, Telephone Monitoring, Evidence - Failure to Disclose
in their Sunday best/Hand to Bible they did confess/Condemned to reap what deceit had sown/In a deadly game of telephone.” Johnson waits at Holman Correctional Facility for a new trial or for Marshall ...
GTL, Co-Defendant Agree to $21.3 Million Settlement with HRDC in Price-Fixing Lawsuit
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
Filed under: Settlements, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, HRDC Litigation, Global Tel*Link Corp
GTL, Co-Defendant Agree to $21.3 Million Settlement with HRDC in Price-Fixing Lawsuit by On October 31, 2024, preliminary approval was granted to a settlement reached with the second of three prison telecom giants accused of illegal price-fixing. The suit was filed in June 2020 in United States District Court for …
Pay-for-Play Tablets: The Costly New Prison Paradigm
Article • March 1, 2025 • from PLN March, 2025
Filed under: Food/Commissary (Private Prisons), Electronic Tablets, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates, Tapes/Music, Securus, Global Tel*Link Corp
with their incarcerated loved ones? The NASPO master agreement specifies that phone calls made by prisoners (excluding attorney calls) shall be recorded and stored for the life of the contract, with call record details ...
Mayhem, Murder and Staff Misconduct at Brooklyn BOP Lockup
Article • March 1, 2025 • from PLN March, 2025
Filed under: Cell Searches, Drug Testing, Prison/Jail Murders, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Cell Phone Access, Searches - Cellphones/Computers/Internet
Mayhem, Murder and Staff Misconduct at Brooklyn BOP Lockup by The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a notorious federal jail in Brooklyn, New York, has made the news repeatedly thanks to some high-profile detainees held there to await trial. But federal prosecutors have also charged nine detainees for a series of …
20 South Carolina Prisoners Sentenced So Far for Deadly 2018 Riot
Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025
Filed under: Retaliation, Prison Rebellion, Prison Gangs, Staffing, Cell Phone Access
20 South Carolina Prisoners Sentenced So Far for Deadly 2018 Riot by Two South Carolina prisoners were sentenced on December 10, 2024, for their roles in a riot that killed seven fellow prisoners and injured 20 more. They were the most recent of 20 prisoners sentenced so far for convictions …
First Circuit Rejects Request by Securus and Pay Tel to Stay FCC Prison Phone Rate Caps
Article • January 15, 2025 • from PLN January, 2025
Filed under: Telephone Rates, Private Phone Contractors, Securus
First Circuit Rejects Request by Securus and Pay Tel to Stay FCC Prison Phone Rate Caps by On November 18, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued two orders denying motions filed by Securus Technologies, LLC, and Pay Tel Communications, Inc., seeking to stay implementation …
Securus/JPay Video Calling Service Potentially Threatened by New Rate Caps
Article • January 15, 2025 • from PLN January, 2025
Filed under: JPay, Inc., Telephone Rates, Video Visitation, Securus
Securus/JPay Video Calling Service Potentially Threatened by New Rate Caps by On November 19, 2024, prison telecom Securus Technologies, Inc., along with subsidiary JPay, notified users of services provided by the firms at prisons and jails of steps being taken to comply with a recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order. …
Eighth Circuit Asked to Block New FCC Rules Capping Prison Phone Rates and Eliminating Ancillary Fees and Kickbacks
Article • November 15, 2024 • from PLN November, 2024
Filed under: Telephone Rates, Federal Funds
Eighth Circuit Asked to Block New FCC Rules Capping Prison Phone Rates and Eliminating Ancillary Fees and Kickbacks by In a petition filed on September 30, 2024, the Republican Attorneys General of 14 states asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to block new rate caps on …
FCC Slashes Prison and Jail Phone Rates, Caps Video Call Cost, Eliminates “Site Commission” Kickbacks
Article • October 15, 2024 • from PLN October, 2024
Filed under: Telephone Rates, Video Visitation, Federal Funds, Private Phone Contractors, Securus, Global Tel*Link Corp
the primary means of contacting family members and friends remains the landline telephone—technology that dates back to Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the first telephone in 1876. Until fairly ...
Nevada Supreme Court Holds That Violating Jail Phone Policy Does Not Waive Attorney-Client Privilege
Article • September 15, 2024 • from PLN September, 2024
Filed under: Attorney Client, Attorney Calls
Nevada Supreme Court Holds That Violating Jail Phone Policy Does Not Waive Attorney-Client Privilege by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney When a jail is found to violate a detainee’s Sixth Amendment expectation that communications with his attorney are privileged, courts often shrug it off as harmless; after all, the detainee …
Washington, Virginia Advance Bills to Make Prison Calls Free
Article • July 1, 2024 • from PLN July, 2024
Filed under: Telephone Rates
Washington, Virginia Advance Bills to Make Prison Calls Free by Lawmakers on both coasts of the U.S. sponsored legislation in January 2024 to make telecommunications free to state prisoners and their families. This follows a national trend to ease the financial burden on families with incarcerated loved ones and reduce …
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