We just read a good article in The Independent, by Tracy Overstreet, about how Hall County Jail set up an email service for inmates - because the phone rates were too high! And the licensed phone provider for the jail? You guessed it – Securus!   The jail administrative assistant said that local call costs a […]

Why states shouldn’t profit from prison phone calls, i.e. the commission system? Because the revenue that large telcos generate and then give, as commission, to the state, comes from prisoners’ families who accept collect calls, pay for calls from their prepaid accounts or send money to their incarcerated family members for their debit phone accounts. […]

Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day, and this year the UN and its humanitarian partners continue their ground-breaking campaign called The world needs more… which is the first-of-its-kind project that turns words into aid. To learn more and get involved go to: http://worldhumanitarianday.org/home/ENGLISH/   In the spirit of humanitarianism we wanted to remind you of humanitarian and volunteer work […]

Today we read the article Class Claims Telecom Gouges Prisoners, from the Courthouse News Service, which reported that Securus, the giant telecom company was sued, a few days ago in a class action, for charging more than 100 times the going rate for phone calls in more than 2,000 prisons.   Lead plaintiff Susan Mojica claims […]

Here’s a great article about the debate over jail phone call prices, in Orange County, which explains that the prices have drawn concern from two county supervisors recently and could possibly change this week. This week, a proposal concerning Global Tel Link’s contract extension or amendment, will likely cut the company’s revenue by over $1.2 million […]

We’ve been writing these days about the exaggerated number of children and youth in prison, the severe racial disparity that exists in the juvenile justice system, and the school-to-prison pipeline.   The school-to-prison pipeline describes the many ways in which inadequate support for kids in schools contributes to an increased flow of kids dropping out […]

We’ve been discussing the problem of juvenile justice, and we’ve seen a lot of alarming reports about the school-to-prison pipeline that is decimating the African-American community, wrecking havoc on government budgets, and enriching the pockets of private prison stock holders.   Experts point to the fact that any child  in a school environment and culture that relies on one […]

Yesterday we wrote about children in prison, and the benefits of moving away from punishment to education, in order to give children a chance. If you want to read more about the benefits of education over imprisonment go to  https://dadisispeaks.wordpress.com/category/culture/prison-industrial-complex/   Repeatedly, research has shown that spending time in prison or jail can have profound effects […]

This week was International Youth Day, so we thought we would open up a discussion about youth in prison – or actually the problem of youth in prison.   Through the juvenile courts and the adult justice system, the US incarcerates more youth than any other country in the world. This is a reflection of […]

Yesterday we wrote about the problems Native Americans face in prison, and today we wanted to highlight a similar problem – in Australia, where indigenous people, the Aborigines, form a quarter of the prison population even thought they account for only 3-4% of the general population. In fact, if you are an Aboriginal person you […]