Stop Prison Profiteering

Join us in fighting the companies and governments that are financially exploiting prisoners and pushing the costs of mass incarceration on to the families of prisoners. This includes money transfer services, commissary companies, pay to stay fees, for-profit probation and parole, the bail bond industry and the other parasites feeding off the prison system.

The “Time is Money” documentary featured here was produced by theCenter for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative newsroom in Washington, DC. It was originally part of their “Profiting from Prisoners” series that originally appeared September 30, 2014.

Take Action

We are currently collecting information about the ways that family members of prisoners and detainees get cheated by the high cost of sending money to fund inmate accounts, and the ways that this money is given back upon release from custody (such as debit cards from private companies). There are pending federal actions where your stories could make a difference in these practices. Please fill out our survey to help us end prison profiteering.

The more stories we can collect the greater impact we can have.

If you or someone you know has been charged high fees to send money to a prisoner or to access money when released from custody we would like to know the following:

1) The name of the facility and state it is located in.

2) The name of the company processing the money or issuing the debit card.

3) How much money was taken from you? Were the fees disclosed? If so, how?

4) What documentation do you have?

5) When did it occur?

6) Did you object?

Please send your responses to: kmoses@humanrightsdefensecenter.org

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Securus Technologies, Inc. to Acquire JPay Inc.

Apr 24, 2015 | by admin

This transaction thrusts Securus into the fastest growing segments in corrections…” said Rick Smith, CEO of Securus Technologies. JPay and Securus are merging to create the ultimate prison profiteering leviathan, covering money transfers, release funds, communications and consumer products to a literally captive market.

Securus Technologies announced on April 14, 2015 that it has signed a definitive Stock Purchase Agreement to acquire JPay Inc.

Dallas firm buys Miramar tech company JPay

JPay, a Miramar-based technology company that provides prisons with electronic payment services, email and a host of educational and entertainment apps, is being acquired by Securus Technologies of Dallas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

JPay, with 255 employees, operates in 33 state prisons serving more than 1.6 million inmates. JPay was founded in 2002 as a payments company and later evolved to include a digital platform that combines tablets, kiosks and an inmate cloud, giving inmates access to email, music, books, games, shopping and education.

“We are always eager to expand our footprint,” said Ryan Shapiro, JPay’s CEO. “With Securus behind us, we can now make that happen in a fraction of the time. … I credit our team for their relentless pursuit of the company’s vision, which is to develop products that make prisons safer, more efficient, and most importantly that enable inmates to transition into viable citizens once released.”

Shapiro said the entire team is staying put in South Florida, and Shapiro will continue to run JPay, but as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Securus. “We are interested in being more active with the tech community here in South Florida,” said Shapiro. “Most of our team is software and firmware developers.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the second or third quarter of this year, the companies said. Securus Technologies serves more than 2,600 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies, and more than 1 million inmates across North America, with a host of services. “This transaction thrusts Securus into the fastest-growing segments in corrections: payments, email, and most recently, inmate tablets,” said Rick Smith, CEO of Securus Technologies.