Can a Nonprofit Disrupt the Pricey Prison Phone Industry?
A free video service is offering a new alternative to prison phone calls, as part of a reform effort that gained more momentum during the pandemic.
Judy White is the first person to use new video technology to talk with her friend Joyce Binder at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women.
Source: Ameelio
The burden of an expensive phone call for people in prison may never have been more apparent than during the pandemic. With in-person visits halted at many U.S. facilities for months, people who weren’t released from jail were using more phone minutes than pre-pandemic.
But they might have spent even more time talking to loved ones, if not for the expense. In-state phone calls can cost $1 or more a minute in many localities, not including additional fees tied to the calls. And in some places, a 30-minute video visit can exceed $12. It’s an issue that some lawmakers are starting to reform with regulation. In the meantime, a new nonprofit is seeking to disrupt the mostly privatized $1.4 billion prison telecommunications industry.