WASHINGTON — Yesterday, a coalition of public interest groups including UCC Media Justice Ministry, Worth Rises, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and others filed an Application for Review urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to overturn a recent decision by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau that suspends the 2024 FCC rules to lower price caps on prison phone calls.  

New York, NY | Nijmegen, Netherlands – Today, the United Kingdom’s National Contact Point (NCP) for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accepted complaints against UK-based banks Barclays and HSBC after a preliminary investigation. The complaints allege that the banks contravened their responsibilities under the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct by maintaining financial ties to CoreCivic and GEO Group, the two largest private prison operators in the United States, without taking steps to prevent or mitigate their exposure to human rights violations.

ALBANY, NY — In a major victory for families across New York, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) has announced that it will make phone calls free for people incarcerated in New York state prisons on August 1st, 2025. The state follows the lead of New York City, which became the first U.S. city to make jail calls free in 2019, saving city families an estimated $10 million per year. Now, with statewide implementation, New York joins California, Colorado (2026), Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota in providing communication for incarcerated people at no cost. Notably, New York is the first state to take this action administratively, without legislation, setting an example for executive leadership in other states. 

NEW YORK, NY — Today, Worth Rises denounced the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent decision to pause implementation of long-awaited regulations capping the cost of phone and video calls in jails and prisons, alongside more than 1,000 families that have already submitted public comments to the FCC urging reconsideration. 

 The U.S. correctional system is a multibillion-dollar industry, turning a profit from incarceration at every turn. Bought out by private prison interests, the Trump administration is set to radically expand its reach and impact. In her groundbreaking new book, The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits (The New Press, April 8, 2025), Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises, pulls back the curtain on the corporations fueling mass incarceration for financial gain with the help of their government partners.

Today, Connecticut lawmakers heard testimony on SB 430, which would prevent corporations doing business in the state from manufacturing and selling drugs and medical devices for the purpose of death penalty executions. The bill was introduced by State Senators Saud Anwar and Ceci Maher and State Representative Josh Elliott after recent reporting revealed that several Connecticut-based corporations were facilitating the death penalty in other jurisdictions around the country.

NEW YORK, NY — Award-winning pianist, composer, vocalist, and multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes has released the new single “Am I Human?” to shed light on prison labor in the United States. The single features the talented Jamila Woods, Bobby Gonz, Keith LaMar (on death row), and Elliott Skinner and is a haunting yet powerful call to end slavery in U.S. prisons.

New York, U.S. and Nijmegen, Switzerland – Today, the Swiss National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct (NCP), a governmental business and human rights watchdog, accepted a complaint by human rights groups against Swiss banking giant UBS for its investment holdings in U.S. private prison contractors CoreCivic and GEO Group. The complaint was filed by non-profits BankTrack, Coalition for Immigrant Freedom, and Worth Rises. It follows years of civil society advocacy for investors to pressure private prison contractors to stop human rights abuses, or else to divest from those companies.

NATIONAL — Today, ahead of Labor Day, Worth Rises, a nonprofit criminal justice advocacy organization, launched a digital letter archive with first-hand accounts of slavery in U.S. prisons. The letters, from over 200 incarcerated workers, were collected as part the public education efforts of the organization’s #EndTheException campaign, which seeks to end the exception in the 13th Amendment that still allows slavery to be used as criminal punishment. This archive is a testament to the courageous resilience of the 800,000 incarcerated workers forced to labor in the U.S. and a record of the continuation of slavery in this country.

PIEDMONT, S.C. — Today, local faith leaders led by Reverend Hillary Taylor delivered nearly 5,000 petition signatures to Allegro Industries, a safety equipment manufacturer based in South Carolina, demanding the corporation ban the use of its gas masks in death penalty executions. The petition, which also names Allegro’s corporate parents, Connecticut-based Walter Surface Technologies and Canadian-based Onex Corporation, come after an Allegro mask was used to carry out the first ever nitrogen suffocation to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama on January 25. In response to today’s peaceful action, which comes as Alabama readies for its second execution by nitrogen suffocation on September 26, Allegro executives caustically locked the doors and called the police.