WORTH RISES CHALLENGES PRIVATE EQUITY’S OWNERSHIP OF PRISON PROFITEERS EXPLOITING FAMILIES DURING COVID-19 CRISIS, SEEKS EMERGENCY REGULATION FROM THE FCC

While some corporations step up to fight COVID-19, private equity firms and their portfolio companies target incarcerated people and their families

NEW YORK, NY – On Monday, Worth Rises challenged prison service corporations that have used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity exploit incarcerated people and their families. Worth Rises sent demand letters to the directors of five firms and submitted an emergency request to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging the agency to ensure that incarcerated people and their families have access to free communication.

Worth Rises, along with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, Color of Change, and the American Federation of Teachers, sent demand letters to five private equity firms that own corporations that have preyed upon incarcerated people, both before and during this pandemic. The letters demanded that the firms take immediate action to stop their portfolio corporations from exploiting incarcerated people and endangering the lives of countless people. The firms included: Platinum Equity, which owns Securus (telecom provider), JPay (financial services), and Satellite Tracking of People (electronic monitoring); HIG, which owns Wellpath (healthcare), TKC Holdings (food service, commissary, and telecom provider); American Securities, which owns GTL (telecom provider); BlueMountain, which owns Corizon (healthcare); and Apax Partners, which owns Attenti (electronic monitoring). The letters are available here.

On Tuesday, Worth Rises also submitted an emergency request for relief to the FCC, urging the Commission to encourage correctional telecom corporations to honor Chairman Pai’s Keep Americans Connected Pledge by voluntarily making prison and jail phone calls free for at least 60 days. Alternatively, in the event that correctional telecom providers refused to sign the Pledge in a timely manner, the request urged the Commission to use its emergency rulemaking powers to make prison and jail calls free for at least 60 days. Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises, said “Private-equity owned prison corporations have been exploiting families for years, and these predatory business practices have continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. These private equity firms need to stop their portfolio corporations from price gouging incarcerated people and their families, especially during this public health crisis. And in their failure to act, federal regulatory agencies like the FCC must interject and protect incarcerated people and their families.”

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