Families are increasingly economically insecure as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, making the egregious cost of phone calls with incarcerated loved ones almost entirely out of reach

NEW YORK, NY — On Thursday, 302 advocacy organizations, foundations, faith-based groups, and elected officials delivered an urgent letter to the National Governors Association, U.S. Conference of Mayors, and National Sheriffs’ Association calling on state and local leaders to use their executive powers to stop charging families to communicate with incarcerated loved ones and make prison and jail calls free. The letter was drafted and organized by organizations led by directly-impacted advocates, including the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), Legal Service for Prisoners with Children, Essie Justice Group, and We Got Us Now supported by Worth Rises and Color Of Change.

As prisons and jails become epicenters of the COVID-19 crisis, state officials and administrators have subjected incarcerated people to inexcusable neglect. Their attitudes and inaction have allowed existing crises of inaccessible hygiene, inadequate healthcare, substandard nutrition, and a general lack of care to manifest with a devastating human cost. Rather than addressing these grave injustices, correctional administrators have resorted to suspending visits and perpetual lockdowns, leaving incarcerated people in torturous isolation. Now, more than ever, calls constitute a critical lifeline.

By including the free calls provision, Congress brought immediate relief and comfort to families stressed about the safety of their loved ones and forced to pay $3.15 for a 15-minute call

NEW YORK, NY – On Thursday, prison phone justice advocates applauded Congress for including a provision in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The provision authorized the Department of Justice to make phone calls free for people incarcerated in federal prison and their families after a finding that emergency conditions existed. It took effect on Wednesday night after the Department of Justice declared last week that the COVID-19 pandemic was materially impacting the operations of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

This provision is particularly important as COVID-19 rampages through federal prisons and other correctional facilities across the country. While releasing incarcerated people remains most important given the impossibility of social distancing in correctional facilities, ensuring those left behind can connect with their support systems by making phone and video calls free is remarkably important. In a time when prisons and jails have often resorted to almost-perpetual lockdown, the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Prisons must take steps to ensure that the spirit of this provision and resulting policy, which was to increase access to communication, is not frustrated by limited access to phones or video kiosks.

We also urge every state, county, and city to follow Congress’ lead and make calls free in state prisons and local jails.

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.

NEW YORK, NY – On Thursday, 50 criminal justice and workers’ rights organizations came together to send New York Governor Andrew Cuomo a letter demanding that he use his executive powers during the current State of Emergency, declared on March 7 in response to the Coronovirus outbreak, to fairly compensate the State’s incarcerated workers.

The letter is a response to Governor Cuomo’s March 9th announcement that New York’s incarcerated workers are being tasked with mass producing hand sanitizer to address the State’s shortage of the critical personal hygiene product during the Coronovirus outbreak. These workers are paid as little as $0.26 per hour and barred from possessing hand sanitizer because its alcohol content makes it contraband.

The letter states, “Last year, you voiced support for increasing the wages paid to incarcerated New Yorkers. We demand that you act on your sentiment and address the reality of modern-day slavery in NYS prisons by paying incarcerated workers minimum wage. We urge you to start by using your funding power under the declared State of Emergency to pay incarcerated workers charged with lifesaving work during this public health crisis fair wages. We also demand that you continue to pay incarcerated workers through potential work interruptions that might result from the Coronavirus pandemic.”

NEW YORK, NY — The Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, Parole Preparation Project, VOCAL-NY, Worth Rises, Citizen Action of NY, the #HALTsolitary Campaign and Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club released the following statement in response to Governor Cuomo’s ban on prison visits through April 11 in the wake of the Coronavirus:

“We fundamentally value public health during this serious time and recognize that as a society we are only as safe as our most vulnerable populations. That’s why we support measures that advance comprehensive and holistic public health for all New Yorkers, including those behind bars.

We are outraged that the only two actions Governor Cuomo has taken for incarcerated people since the outbreak of the Coronavirus are forcing incarcerated people to make hand sanitizer for slave wages, and keeping families apart with a blanket ban on visiting through April 11.

NEW YORK, NY – On Monday, national headlines picked up New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s outrageous plan to use prison labor to mass produce hand sanitizer to combat the spread of coronavirus. During the plan’s grandiose unveiling, the Governor did not mention the incarcerated workers tasked with executing this plan or that the state pays them as little as $0.26 per hour. He also failed to mention that incarcerated people are prohibited from using hand sanitizer. But the Governor’s announcement did bring attention to just one of the countless ways that the private and public sectors are using the coronavirus to exploit incarcerated people.

Bianca Tylek, Executive Director at Worth Rises, said “Worth Rises condemns the exploitation of incarcerated people and their loved ones at all times, but particularly in times of crisis. In facilities throughout the country, the prison industry and its correctional partners are preying upon incarcerated people and their loved ones right now, exploiting everything from efforts to stay informed to slave labor. By putting profit over people, some will make millions while others will pay with their lives.”

NEW YORK, NY — Today, presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a platform outlining her vision for eliminating private prisons and ending the transfer of carceral costs onto the vulnerable communities targeted and exploited by the prison industrial complex.

Citing Worth Rises’ Prison Industrial Complex Report, Warren pledged to ban private prisons and detention facilities, stop contractors from charging fees for essential services like communication and healthcare, and hold contractors accountable by expanding oversight, transparency and enforcement.

Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises, responds: “We are glad to see that the prison industrial complex is finally part of the national electoral discussion on criminal justice, and that presidential candidates like Sen. Warren are addressing the issue directly. The intention that roots her plan resonates with our mission to end the exploitation of all people touched by incarceration and offers concrete policies to help us get there.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Today, after months of discussions with Worth Rises and our local partners, Mayor London Breed and Sheriff Vicki Hennessy announced that San Francisco will become the first county in the nation to make all phone calls from jail free and end all markups on jail store items. The Mayor’s budget, released on June 1, reflected her decision to make phone calls free, explaining that “communication between incarcerated people and their loved ones can increase safety within jails, decrease recidivism, and improve reentry outcomes.”

Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, was thrilled by the announcement: “This is another historic victory for prison phone justice and criminal justice advocacy. Annually, people in San Francisco’s jails and their support networks spend more than $1.1 million on phone calls to stay connected, roughly $600,000 of which the city collects in commissions, and another $644,000 in markups on commissary products pocketed by the city. But the end is in sight.

HARTFORD, CT — In a disappointing end to Connecticut’s legislative session, lawmakers opted to table the groundbreaking criminal justice bill, House Bill 6714 (H.B. 6714), for next year’s session.

Introduced by Rep. Josh Elliott (D-Hamden), the bill would allow Connecticut residents to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones at no cost, prevent the state from collecting kickbacks on prison communication, and protect in-person visits for incarcerated people and their loved ones.

Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises, expressed dismay at the legislature failing to vote on the bill, but optimism for next year: “Of course we’re disappointed that the vote on our bill was postponed, but importantly, it didn’t die on its merits. The bill failed because the omnibus vehicle carrying it failed in broader negotiations. We had the votes to pass it as a standalone bill, but we ran out of time given filibuster risks on the last eve of the legislative session. It’s frustrating, but it gives us hope as we continue to fight, and we will.  

Second edition of “The Prison Industrial Complex: Mapping Private Sector Players” exposes over 3,900 companies profiting off the carceral state

NEW YORK, NY — Non-profit criminal justice advocacy organization Worth Rises is proud to announce the publication of the 2019 edition of The Prison Industrial Complex: Mapping Private Sector Players report. First published last year, the database that underlies the report has grown by more than 800 corporations to over 3,900 corporations across 12 sectors—ranging from construction to transportation and healthcare to telecom—and the investors that profit from the devastating mass incarceration of our nation’s marginalized communities. The report aggregates critical information about these corporations to help advocates, litigators, journalists, investors, artists, and the public challenge the commercialization of the criminal legal system.

Worth Rises Executive Director Bianca Tylek explained: “Before this report, many of the companies involved in the prison industrial complex flew below the radar, often intentionally to avoid the headline risk that comes with profiting off mass incarceration today. This data brings these companies to light and equips advocates with the information needed to challenge them. This year’s edition expands on our original report with the addition of more than 800 companies. In publishing this report, we continue to expose the multi-billion-dollar industry built off the vulnerable communities—disproportionately black, brown, and cash poor—targeted by the criminal legal system.”