No surprise: Securus refund disaster

I waste 25 minutes for a visit that never happens, and Securus gets to keep my money anyway.

by Bernadette Rabuy, February 3, 2015

I woke up today feeling pretty irked. Back when we were working on our report on the video visitation industry in prisons and jails, I tried to do a Securus video visit with an incarcerated person in Texas. Even though the Securus interface said “Status: Ready,” and I could see my face on the computer screen, I waited for 25 minutes for a video visit that never happened.

As a result, a month ago, I requested a refund from Securus. Since it seemed like I did everything right, I was feeling fairly confident that I’d get a refund. I submitted the refund form a month ago and never heard back. Today, I called, and the automated attendant said I’d have a 4 minute wait, but after 20 minutes I gave up.

And then I noticed this: Securus changed the status of my video visit to “Status: You did not log in for your scheduled visit.” I just so happen to have a screen shot of the Securus website from last month when I was waiting for my visit. Do I look logged in to you?

Six briefings on prison telephone justice

On Monday evening, we submitted 6 major briefings on the need to regulate the prison and jail telephone industry to the Federal Communications Commission.

by Peter Wagner, January 14, 2015

On Monday evening, we submitted 6 major briefings on the need to regulate the prison and jail telephone industry to the Federal Communications Commission:

• Fees continue to increase the cost of calls
• The need to regulate in-state rates
• Prison and jail phone companies seizing customer money
• Single-call programs undermine regulation
• FCC should reject Securus, Global Tel*Link, and Telmate’s joint proposal
• The need for advanced communication services in prisons and jails

Alicia Keys calls for movement-building, not just social justice tweets

Musician Alicia Keys calls for movement-building and uses PPI data

by Bernadette Rabuy, November 12, 2014

Yesterday, musician Alicia Keys wrote a piece for The Guardian describing the motivation behind her activism and calling musicians to use their platforms for true movement-building. Describing how motherhood has fueled her awareness of social injustices, Keys writes, “A woman becomes a lioness when she sees her unborn child’s future juxtaposed with the horrors of the world.” Recently, Keys went out in the streets to protest outside the Nigerian consulate in New York for the six-month anniversary of Boko Haram’s abduction of Nigerian girls. We were also excited to see Keys bring attention to racial disparities in the criminal justice system as an issue she cares about. She even used our data! We hope that other musicians will join Alicia Keys and move beyond social justice tweets to getting into the thick of the movement.

FCC Commissioners are proposing to protect families from in-state prison phone gouging

Two commissioners circulate a proposal that would extend last year's historic ruling protecting some families from the predatory prison and jail telephone industry.

by Peter Wagner, September 25, 2014

Federal Communications Commissioner Clyburn and Chairman Wheeler are circulating to their colleagues a new proposal to regulate the prison and jail telephone industry.

There aren’t a lot of details in the Commission’s press release, but it appears the Commissioners want extend their earlier progress to:

• Extend the regulation and price caps on interstate calls to the vast majority of calls home from prisons and jails that are to numbers within the same state.
• Further restrict the industry’s payments that can be made to the facilities as these payments drive up the cost of a call.
• Fully address the ancillary charges for opening, having, funding and closing accounts. Beyond the actual costs of the call, ancillary charges consume an estimated 400 million dollars per year.

The draft isn’t available yet, but when it is, we’ll have a full analysis and be working with our friends to encourage public comment on it. For background, see our phones page.

Thank you CharitySub!

In March, we were honored to be one of the three charities chosen by CharitySub as one of three organizations addressing the prison epidemic. We report back.

by Peter Wagner, September 19, 2014

In March, we were honored to be one of the three charities chosen by CharitySub as one of three organizations addressing the prison epidemic.

CharitySub is an innovative new approach to online giving. CharitySub members pledge $5 a month, and each month CharitySub picks a new cause and identifies three non-profits making a difference on that cause. Each month, CharitySub members get to pick which of the three organizations receives their $5. Most recently, Charity Sub members have supported organizations addressing STEM education, wildlife welfare, beach conservation, drug free youth, and — this month’s topic — body image.

You can join today to support this month’s organizations and learn about other organizations doing great work in the future.

Thank you, Charity Sub members, for supporting our work. With your help, we won a big victory two weeks ago, convincing Dallas County Texas to reject a video visitation contract that was going to replace the usual visiting hours for families with expensive video visitation. This is the first time the public was able to stop one of these anti-family contracts, so we expect it will have a national effect. Thank you for making this victory for families possible.

Dallas Texas to consider banning free in-person visits, requiring expensive video visits instead

by Peter Wagner, September 9, 2014

Later this morning, Dallas County Texas will vote on a new telephone contract with Securus that will also ban free in-person visits and require families to pay for video visitation instead.

There have been two good stories this week:

• Dallas Morning-News: Dallas County considers using video chats for jail visitation (This article is a good introduction except that it subtly legitimizes the bizarre argument that the contract might not ban in-person visits.)
• Dallas Observer: Dallas County Set to Stop Most Face-to-Face Jail Visits, Charge Families for Video (This article squarely presents the evidence to address the fact that this contract will ban in-person visits.)

With the vote scheduled for this morning, our friends at SumOfUs collected 2,053 petitions from their Texas members in under 12 hours yesterday urging the county to reject a “contract that would substitute visiting hours for expensive corporate-sponsored video calls.”

To our friends in Texas, good luck today!

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization

by Peter Wagner, August 19, 2014

On Sunday, John Oliver did an amazing piece about Ferguson, Missouri and the effects of the unnecessary militarization of the police. (Warning: NSFW for language.)

See also the ACLU’s report from June of this year: War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing. As we summarized in the Research Clearinghouse:

“Using… federal funds, state and local law enforcement agencies have amassed military arsenals purportedly to wage the failed War on Drugs, the battlegrounds of which have disproportionately been in communities of color.”

Legislators listen up, we want fair elections!

Legislators listen up, we want fair elections! You can't count constituents in your house of corrections!

by Leah Sakala, June 12, 2014

I have the good fortune to be a bike commuter for most of the year, which gives me some good bike path thinking time every morning. A couple of years ago, I was riding along and mulling over ways to explain prison gerrymandering (as you do) when the lyrics started to come to me for a new spin on the classic Yankee Doodle.

Here’s how it starts:

If there’s a prison in your district,
don’t get so elated
‘cause it’s not fair to count folks there
who are incarcerated

Your district may be padded full,
but please don’t you gloat
’cause you are violating my right
to one person, one vote

Chorus:
Legislators listen up,
we want fair elections!
You can’t count constituents
in your house of corrections

The full sing-along print-out version is here.

Welcome Bernadette Rabuy!

Our newest staffer comes to us from the University of California, Berkeley, and has previously worked with National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Voice of the Ex-Offender, and Californians United for Responsible Budget.

by Peter Wagner, May 30, 2014

Please welcome our new Policy & Communications Associate, Bernadette Rabuy.

Bernadette comes to us from the University of California, Berkeley, and has previously worked with National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Voice of the Ex-Offender, and Californians United for a Responsible Budget.

Bernadette starts August 1st.

We’re hiring!

Interested in joining the Prison Policy Initiative team? Now's your chance, because we're hiring!

by Peter Wagner, May 1, 2014

Are you interested in joining our dedicated team to produce cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization? Do you want to spark creative advocacy campaigns to create a more just society?

If so, our new employment opportunity Policy & Communications Associate might be for you. Please spread the word, and if you think the position is for you, please apply.