John Oliver attacks harmful mandatory minimum laws

by Rachel Gandy, July 28, 2015

On Sunday, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver tackled another pressing criminal justice issue: the troubling practice of mandatory minimums. Oliver’s 15-minute segment reveals that incarcerated people and their families aren’t alone in their fight against mandatory minimums. Even the policymakers who first created these sentences and the judges who have to hand them down think that such harsh penalties are ineffective.

Occasional pardons may bring relief to some, but without a system-wide, retroactive change to sentencing laws, mandatory minimums will continue to do “way more harm than good.”

For related Last Week Tonight clips, see Oliver’s segments on U.S. prisons, police militarization, judicial elections, municipal violations, and bail and private police.

ICYMI: Explainers on bail and and private police

John Oliver & Dan Kopf explain bail; and Sally Herships on Marketplace explains the growth of private police.

by Peter Wagner, June 8, 2015

Last night, comedian John Oliver did a great segment last night on bail (NSFW):

And on that topic, don’t miss Daniel Kopf’s article from two weeks ago on Priceonomics: America’s Peculiar Bail System. (Dan is a member of our Young Professionals Network. Stay tuned for the results of his research collaborations with us.)

And on Friday, Sally Herships on Marketplace did a great piece on the role, number and challenges of private police in the U.S. (Spoiler: There are more private police in the U.S. than public police, which raises troubling questions about who benefits when most policing isn’t in the public interest. Her story starts 13 minutes in.)

National Academies video on US incarceration growth

by Aleks Kajstura, April 8, 2015

The National Academies recently released a great video highlighting some findings from their 2014 report, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Take a look at mass incarceration in perspective:

John Oliver does it again: How municipal violations can ruin lives

Oliver explains how municipalities lock people up for failure to pay traffic fines

by Bernadette Rabuy, March 23, 2015

John Oliver does it again! Watch Last Week Tonight: Municipal Violations and learn more about municipalities that are senselessly locking people up for failure to pay traffic tickets.

John Oliver takes on judicial elections

by Peter Wagner, February 25, 2015

John Oliver on HBO Tonight explains judicial elections and explains how that hurts our justice system. (Warning: NSFW for language.)

Exploiting Inmates

"Exploiting Inmates" by Sukey Lewis in today's East Bay Express presents a great comprehensive overview of the current problems with the prison and jail phone industry

by Aleks Kajstura, February 4, 2015

The simply-titled article Exploiting Inmates by Sukey Lewis in today’s East Bay Express presents a great comprehensive overview of the current problems with the prison and jail phone industry.

Well worth a read, whether you’re new to the issue or looking for a good narrative that ties it all together: Exploiting Inmates

No surprise: Securus refund disaster

I waste 25 minutes for a visit that never happens, and Securus gets to keep my money anyway.

by Bernadette Rabuy, February 3, 2015

I woke up today feeling pretty irked. Back when we were working on our report on the video visitation industry in prisons and jails, I tried to do a Securus video visit with an incarcerated person in Texas. Even though the Securus interface said “Status: Ready,” and I could see my face on the computer screen, I waited for 25 minutes for a video visit that never happened.

As a result, a month ago, I requested a refund from Securus. Since it seemed like I did everything right, I was feeling fairly confident that I’d get a refund. I submitted the refund form a month ago and never heard back. Today, I called, and the automated attendant said I’d have a 4 minute wait, but after 20 minutes I gave up.

And then I noticed this: Securus changed the status of my video visit to “Status: You did not log in for your scheduled visit.” I just so happen to have a screen shot of the Securus website from last month when I was waiting for my visit. Do I look logged in to you?

Six briefings on prison telephone justice

On Monday evening, we submitted 6 major briefings on the need to regulate the prison and jail telephone industry to the Federal Communications Commission.

by Peter Wagner, January 14, 2015

On Monday evening, we submitted 6 major briefings on the need to regulate the prison and jail telephone industry to the Federal Communications Commission:

• Fees continue to increase the cost of calls
• The need to regulate in-state rates
• Prison and jail phone companies seizing customer money
• Single-call programs undermine regulation
• FCC should reject Securus, Global Tel*Link, and Telmate’s joint proposal
• The need for advanced communication services in prisons and jails

Alicia Keys calls for movement-building, not just social justice tweets

Musician Alicia Keys calls for movement-building and uses PPI data

by Bernadette Rabuy, November 12, 2014

Yesterday, musician Alicia Keys wrote a piece for The Guardian describing the motivation behind her activism and calling musicians to use their platforms for true movement-building. Describing how motherhood has fueled her awareness of social injustices, Keys writes, “A woman becomes a lioness when she sees her unborn child’s future juxtaposed with the horrors of the world.” Recently, Keys went out in the streets to protest outside the Nigerian consulate in New York for the six-month anniversary of Boko Haram’s abduction of Nigerian girls. We were also excited to see Keys bring attention to racial disparities in the criminal justice system as an issue she cares about. She even used our data! We hope that other musicians will join Alicia Keys and move beyond social justice tweets to getting into the thick of the movement.

FCC Commissioners are proposing to protect families from in-state prison phone gouging

Two commissioners circulate a proposal that would extend last year's historic ruling protecting some families from the predatory prison and jail telephone industry.

by Peter Wagner, September 25, 2014

Federal Communications Commissioner Clyburn and Chairman Wheeler are circulating to their colleagues a new proposal to regulate the prison and jail telephone industry.

There aren’t a lot of details in the Commission’s press release, but it appears the Commissioners want extend their earlier progress to:

• Extend the regulation and price caps on interstate calls to the vast majority of calls home from prisons and jails that are to numbers within the same state.
• Further restrict the industry’s payments that can be made to the facilities as these payments drive up the cost of a call.
• Fully address the ancillary charges for opening, having, funding and closing accounts. Beyond the actual costs of the call, ancillary charges consume an estimated 400 million dollars per year.

The draft isn’t available yet, but when it is, we’ll have a full analysis and be working with our friends to encourage public comment on it. For background, see our phones page.