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A phone call to a US prison or jail can cost up to a dollar per minute — a rate that forces one in three families with incarcerated loved ones into debt. In this searing talk about mass incarceration, criminal justice advocate and TED Fellow Bianca Tylek exposes the predatory nature of the billion-dollar prison telecom industry and presents straightforward strategies to dismantle the network of corporations that has a financial interest in seeing more people behind bars for longer periods of time.
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[SHAPE YOUR FUTURE]
Not too long ago, a mother told me,
“I can talk to my son in the dark.”
[Operator voice: The prepaid
collect call from an inmate at –]
Her son was in prison
and paying for phone calls often meant
she couldn’t afford her light bill.
See, families can pay as much
as a dollar a minute
to speak to a loved one in prison or jail.
These egregious rates
have created a 1.2-billion-dollar
prison telecom industry
and with visit costs
forced one in three families
with an incarcerated loved one into debt.
Eighty-seven percent of those carrying
this financial burden are women.
And as a result of decades
of racist policies and policing,
they’re disproportionately
Black and brown.
Prison telecom corporations claim
that these high rates are necessary
to pay site commissions
to prisons and jails
and provide security and surveillance.
While the government’s hands
are far from clean,
these corporate claims are simply
not supported by reality.
Consider this.
In Connecticut,
where families are charged
as much as 32.5 cents per minute
and the state takes
a 68 percent commission,
the telecom provider
takes home 10 cents per minute.
Now, in Illinois, where the state
takes no commission,
families pay the same corporation
nine tenths of a cent per minute.
In other words, even after
the government takes its cut,
the corporation makes 10 times more
in Connecticut than it does in Illinois
for providing the same service.
And prisons in Illinois are no less secure
than those in Connecticut.
These are simply corporate arguments
used to justify predatory
business practices
and distract from the very simple truth.
Corporations in the prison industry
have a financial interest
in seeing more people behind bars
and for longer periods of time.
In reality, providing families
and their incarcerated loved ones
with regular communication
is not just the right thing to do.
It’s also the most fiscally responsible
and safe thing to do.
If you think taxpayers
shouldn’t be on the hook
for phone calls for people
who have committed crimes,
remember this.
The most expensive rates
are charged in jails
where the majority of people
are awaiting trial and not yet convicted.
Prison wages range from nothing
to a few cents an hour,
so it’s hard working, taxpaying families
that are paying for calls.
And maintaining strong community ties
is one of the most important factors
in a person’s successful
reentry upon release.
It improves housing,
employment and social outcomes,
making it less likely that people
need government support
or end up back in prison.
The bottom line is
that prison telecom corporations,
and the thousands of others
in the prison industry,
prioritize profit as they promote
the caging of people
to exploit them and their families.
See, prison telecom is just one sector
in the 80-billion-dollar prison industry.
When I say prison industry,
I’m talking about food
service corporations
that serve rotten meat
to people behind bars,
health care providers
that deny incarcerated people care,
and architecture firms that design
windowless six-by-nine-foot cells
for solitary confinement,
where people spend weeks,
months and even years.
We invest in these corporations
through our retirement funds,
public pensions,
university endowments
and private foundations,
and we celebrate their executives
on the boards of our favorite
cultural institutions.
And in all fairness,
it’s not just the private sector.
It’s also government agencies
that charge excessive fines and fees
and abuse free or grossly
underpaid prison labor
to manufacture license plates,
staff DMV call centers, fight wildfires
and, yes, even pick cotton.
So this begs the question,
how can we address our crisis
of mass incarceration
if an entire segment of our economy
is fighting to put more people behind bars
and for longer?
We can’t.
But we can demand and create change.
The key is running coordinated
policy and corporate campaigns.
That’s the playbook I put to use
when I founded Worth Rises,
a nonprofit prison abolition organization
dedicated to dismantling
the prison industry.
Let’s go back to prison telecom
for a quick example.
In 2018, we led a campaign
in New York City
that passed the first piece of legislation
to make jail phone calls free,
saving families with
incarcerated loved ones,
nearly 10 million dollars a year
and increasing communication
by roughly 40 percent overnight.
In 2019,
we helped local advocates in San Francisco
introduce a similar policy
and launched several statewide
campaigns to do the same.
That same year,
we fought the consolidation
of two major market players
in front of the Federal Communications
Commission and won.
We blocked 150-million-dollar
investment by a public pension
with a private equity firm
that owned a prison telecom corporation.
And we removed one
of the largest investors in the field
from a major museum board.
In just two years,
we toxified the industry and threatened
its business model,
causing an investor sell-off.
But more importantly,
that means millions of families connected
and billions of dollars protected
from the predatory hands
of prison profiteers.
It means fewer dollars invested in
and promoting human caging and control.
And it means at least one mother
won’t have to sit in the dark
to talk to her son again.
[Operator: You may start
the conversation now.]
Thank you.
just adam
June 4, 2021 at 10:19 pm
Your systems are just insane there is not one aspect of American culture I see as desirable. I believe you have deluded yourselves with greed because you’re government systems are both unfair and unjust written by The entitled 4 The entitled
Amanda McKenna
June 4, 2021 at 10:49 pm
DON’T DO THE CRIME IF YOU CAN’T DO THE TIME. Everyone can get a legal side hustle. There are programs for at risk youths. Educate these kids, stop blaming others. Or don’t. We all know who is in prison.
Gertrude Laronge
June 5, 2021 at 12:45 am
Is that a racist dog whistle I hear?
Sami Naser
June 4, 2021 at 10:51 pm
This is A Marica ………money corporation industry? ?????
Dantick09
June 4, 2021 at 11:00 pm
Someone out there is counting inmates to see how much he/she is going to get paid…fking monsters
Sid Michael
June 4, 2021 at 11:06 pm
She’s hot 🔥
Miguel Suarez-solis
June 4, 2021 at 11:11 pm
While I agree with ending private prisons you lost me at the identity politics right at the beginning
Gertrude Laronge
June 4, 2021 at 11:32 pm
Thank you for bringing awareness to this injustice.
I think this is important.
I would like to help.
Sloan Porter
June 4, 2021 at 11:33 pm
I’d rather see more concern for the care of children not some thug that broke the law and has to pay a dollar a minute. Keep the call short!
1sweetpeach
June 5, 2021 at 12:24 am
And then there’s the corrupt cash for bail racket. So if you are wrongful accused and lucky enough (white) to be granted bail you can pay for your freedom. If you can’t pay, then you stay. Ppl lose so much money, houses and cars trying to get loved ones out of jail before they are ever proven guilty. That’s wrong. Flat out wrong. It’s not innocent till proven guilty but instead guilty till proven innocent and it’s all for money. Disgusting.
Debbie Clark
June 5, 2021 at 12:10 am
For Your Information…..the music industry has stock in the prison system. Thats why the music industry, has bogus and ranchy singers (can’t say music artist, because thier not) like Mega Thee Stallion, Cardi B. Doja Cat, Little Nays, 69 and others singers so they can influence our youth, tear families apart…….all in the hopes to influence the vanurable parts of our society. So they will act out and do what the music industry does….inhopes that they will get arrested and imprisoned…..all so that the music industry will get richer, off of our children and drain us of our money and split up our families.
WAKE UP PEOPLE….THE MUSIC TODAY, IS CONTROLLING AND BRAINWASHING OUR CHILDREN, ALL FOR A CHEAP BUCK. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR RAISING YOUR CHILDREN AND NOT THE MUSIC OR TV AND MOVIE INDUSTRY!!!!
ITS TIME THAT WE TAKE OUR CONTROL AND POWER BACK !!!!!!
thegirlwithribbons
June 5, 2021 at 12:17 am
My husband was incarcerated for a year for a crime he did not commit. He was not sentenced and awaiting his case to be resolved. My phone bills to call him cost me $400 a week in California. $50 every two days MINIMUM. It’s what kept him sane in there..
Now he is home but I understand how corrupt, financially driven the prison/jail system is here. It’s the most racist, economically driven and disturbing part of America only people who have been confronted with the system would know.
Unfortunately this is what keeps it all in the dark.
Thank you for this video. More people need to know about the facts of corruption and mistreatment of inmates and families.
Everson Carvalho
June 5, 2021 at 12:18 am
How to dismantle it? Don’t be a criminal
Gertrude Laronge
June 5, 2021 at 12:46 am
Naieve.
Matthew Morycinski
June 5, 2021 at 12:27 am
Behind that industry is a bunch of holier-than-thou citizens, who never seriously considered what brings someone to commit a crime.
Kingofmphs
June 5, 2021 at 12:35 am
And the Democrats and Republican leaders just keep getting richer.🤦🏼♂️
Scott Trosien
June 5, 2021 at 12:41 am
Don’t do the crime of you don’t want to do the time. It’s a matter of choice. It’s not society. It’s not “the system”. It’s choice to not do illegal things. I grew up poor to a single mom on footsteps and welfare in Detroit yet i didn’t hang out with those who would influence me to poor behaviors. That was a choice.
Gertrude Laronge
June 5, 2021 at 12:48 am
You are naieve.
Nigel Murillo
June 5, 2021 at 12:42 am
Prisoners are the only exception to the amendment that “banned” slavery.
Ronald Indarto Chin
June 5, 2021 at 12:44 am
US Democracy dont work. You guys cant do anything. Its just an illusion, nothing change.
Lane RAA
June 5, 2021 at 12:51 am
All prisons should be privatized, and make it mandatory for all prisoners to be armed.
c.f. geyer
June 5, 2021 at 12:59 am
Thanks for your enlightening comments, my grandmother used to say that there were more out than in. The prison and jail system are more corrupt than the people they are supposedly protecting us from. Thanks
Mr G
June 5, 2021 at 1:01 am
In case I needed any more evidence that America sucks…!
Kris klos
June 5, 2021 at 1:18 am
This country has some seriously sick f*ck’s running it.
Kris klos
June 5, 2021 at 1:19 am
Thie to break the prisons, HARD!!!!!!!
Lyndon Boucher
June 5, 2021 at 1:21 am
Stop breaking the law… the end
Eric Johnson
June 5, 2021 at 1:24 am
I was gonna be SO PISSED OFF if you had tried to paint this in any sort of positive light.
I’m glad you didn’t.
Slavery never ended. It was never really abolished. It was only given a new mask to hide behind.
Weed it out and burn it at the roots.
Aini Inayatus sholikhah
June 5, 2021 at 1:27 am
gw yg gatau artinya tpi tetep nonton 😭😂
Adventurous One
June 5, 2021 at 7:33 am
Give your life to Jesus Christ. Believe and pray:
*God, I know that I am a sinner and unless you save me I’ll be lost forever. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, died on the cross for my sins and arose on the 3rd day. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.*
World of ticktalkers
June 5, 2021 at 8:45 am
Stuff like this makes me crazy, angry, depressed, rebellious, anti everything
desire toustou
June 5, 2021 at 9:05 am
if we spend the money before, fewer people would be thrown in jail.
Tan Xu
June 5, 2021 at 9:15 am
Been sentenced to a Chinese prison for two years, which is much worse and corrupted than US’s. No human rights there. The guards take money in every way and treat us like garbages.
James Calbert
June 5, 2021 at 11:24 am
The 13th Ammendment, “…abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.” Until we change the notion that all incarceration is, “PUNISHMENT” and therefore justifies slavery, we, as the MOST INCARCERATED NATION IN THE WORLD can only expect more of the same. Only in the rarest of cases should incarceration mean punishment. In most cases rehabilitation is the best approach to reintegrating people into productive members of society.
Eris Socratou
June 5, 2021 at 11:37 am
The prisons are an ugly business but people will run away when you mention publicly financed ones because (scary word ahead) *socialism.*
Bloom0to9
June 5, 2021 at 11:52 am
Capitalism… Everything is a business.
Rodney Oben
June 5, 2021 at 12:17 pm
Beautiful presentation!!
Gustavo Perez
June 5, 2021 at 12:51 pm
Nationalize prison healthcare systems
Joseph Raymond
June 5, 2021 at 12:52 pm
Yeah,um,300 years of developing a system even older than that isn’t going to go away any time soon.
Necate
June 5, 2021 at 12:58 pm
Almost sounds like legal borders are necessary keep businesses in check …
>Uncle Sam starts shrieking in vampire
For An Angel
June 5, 2021 at 1:37 pm
First we “abolish” slavery (except in cases of incarceration) and then after passing numerous laws that target black and brown people low and behold the prisons start filling up with the descendants of slaves and we still have legal slavery to this day.
larry jervik
June 5, 2021 at 1:45 pm
First profit prison is a creation of the false god jehovah the evil men who speak his name are those who invest blindly…for the lord’s work be done and the lords work is greed
-
June 5, 2021 at 2:10 pm
Challenge: look at a graph of the US incarceration rate and see if you can figure out when they privatized prisons… ¬_¬
Nate Schultz
June 5, 2021 at 2:44 pm
The prison labor system is basically tolerated slavery.
Joedy Barnes
June 5, 2021 at 10:35 pm
I mean…. the 13th amendment says it is slavery. If you want it change, advocate for a new amendment.
ptorrento
June 5, 2021 at 4:51 pm
100% correct – “These are simply corporate arguments, used to justify predatory business practices, and distract from a very simple truth.”
Michael Smallwood
June 5, 2021 at 4:58 pm
If we just execute people for violent felonies then we wouldnt need as many prisons.
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June 5, 2021 at 5:57 pm
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Cactus Jones
June 5, 2021 at 8:36 pm
I’ve worked in a women’s prison and I’ve heard it all before, everything is unfair, the law is wrong, nobody cares, I’m innocent, etc. When confronted with the fact that they put themselves in prison they always shut up. To be absolutely honest, the inmates had more rights than I did as a prison maintenance worker. Bleeding hearts worry about drug addicts, murderers, thieves, sexual predators and NEVER say a thing about the victims. Wake up people, they’re in prison for a reason. Is the prison system perfect? No! Show me one government or state or county or city ran ANYTHING that is perfect. Nothing is perfect, stop complaining because you think it ought to be perfect.
Jonathan
June 5, 2021 at 9:21 pm
This will seem more legitimate without the dollar store sound effects
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June 6, 2021 at 12:16 am
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Random Videos
June 6, 2021 at 1:45 am
So bad 😔
Carl Jeinkins
June 6, 2021 at 1:58 am
Just because a demographic of people commit more crimes does NOT mean the laws are racist.
Urban Twilight
June 6, 2021 at 3:50 am
Drop the annoying sound fx.
AnAZPatriot
June 6, 2021 at 5:12 am
Anyone bother to ask the prisoners which prison they prefer? I know someone did because I remember reading it. Overwhelmingly they prefer private ones…because they are run better and have accountability. Govt. prisons have no accountability.
Cecilia Cole
June 6, 2021 at 7:02 am
Abolish!
Kevin Wells
June 6, 2021 at 7:09 am
I had two commentary’s I deleted now. Because I’m learning from you, and I can’t help but just agree with you. I only want to you remember that there are some people, in these prisons, that really need to be kept away from society. It is a very, very small number – I would agree to that. But what do you propose we do with them? Meanwhile, I agree these prison profiteers need to be put out of business.
XNova Studios-Education
June 6, 2021 at 7:35 am
Wow
Emm N.
June 6, 2021 at 8:06 am
“Fighting to put more people behind bars”. That’s misleading…. as if personal responsibility just got thrown out the window. I get the hardship, but I don’t get the ignorance for lack of owning for one’s actions. You have it hard in life? That’s no excuse to commit a crime. NEVER! Not to mention that most crimes have victims who, if questioned, would keep your convicts incarcerated for life for the hardship and pain they’ve created. But those voices don’t matter. Better yet, since Biden want sources of income, there you go, tax those corps.
Him
June 6, 2021 at 9:03 am
* mounts onto a prison *
dank
June 6, 2021 at 10:24 am
for me, if a person goes into prison, that person lose his/her citizenship and stuff.
kay123nay
June 6, 2021 at 12:05 pm
That’s amazing work!
Daniel Chua
June 6, 2021 at 1:33 pm
The more I get to know more about USA, the more I see a “USA Inc.” where everything is about profit, and governed by jungle rules, survival of the fittest. Sorry, if you are weak, please just give up and wait to be preyed on.
The worst is, when you are try speak out your mind against this, the only reaction is USA is no socialist, we don’t do communist in the land of the free.
Pathetic
Hack-n-Mate
June 6, 2021 at 2:18 pm
First min in I’m already calling it BS
Peter didn't pick a pepper. But 2.
June 6, 2021 at 7:50 pm
i havnt eveb watch it, but from the comments im not going to. Seriously detressing all this is. and it comming to a life near you. maybe even you
Roshan
June 6, 2021 at 7:57 pm
good topic from TED…never thought in that way
Lil bit Supreme
June 6, 2021 at 11:03 pm
Awesome content.
Sarah Couture
June 7, 2021 at 5:36 am
So evil…so greedy… so hidden in plain sight… so massively misunderstood…
HellYeah
June 7, 2021 at 10:59 am
From 1 dollar a minute to free? Did I hear that right?
Kali Renkel
June 7, 2021 at 2:44 pm
I wish this was common knowledge.
budearta
June 8, 2021 at 6:54 am
Do people forget why we have prisons? Or why people go to prison?
Sophia Mick
June 8, 2021 at 11:36 am
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June 8, 2021 at 11:37 am
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Matt Stiles
June 8, 2021 at 3:50 pm
I got tortured in jail in amarillo tx twice and they have it on camera and they were evil
WokeNFree
June 8, 2021 at 10:41 pm
I wonder which public companies are financially invested in the prison system.