The Campaign for Prison Phone Justice hosted two actions around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to expose the real victims of predatory phone call rates.
Campaign for Prison Phone Justice
Report-Back on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Actions
“The real victims of the high cost of prison phone calls are the children that are left behind when a loved one is sent to jail or detention center.”
Over 2.7 million children spent this past Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with a parent behind bars. Of that, the hardest hit are children of color: 1 in 28 Latino children and 1 in 9 African American children have a parent behind bars. Unfortunately, the excessive costs of prison phone calls prevent many of these children from communicating with their incarcerated parents.
The Campaign for Prison Phone Justice hosted two actions around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to expose the real victims of the predatory phone call rates.
“Our primary target for the days of action was the Federal Communications Commission. The pending docket known as the “Wright Petition,” which asks the FCC to set some baseline standards for interstate prison phone calls, has been sitting at the FCC for the past seven years.”
For Mother’s Day, we created an online postcard that allowed people to share their stories, which were then submitted to the FCC’s public docket on this issue. For Father’s Day, we hosted a national call-in day to the FCC’s office.
“We needed to exert pressure from outside Washington D.C. to demonstrate that this issue is a priority for families in communities across the country.”
Some highlights from the actions:
– 639 postcards submitted to the FCC on Mother’s Day
– 550 unique phone calls to the FCC on Father’s Day
– Story picked up by 83 radio stations (Mother’s Day), more than ten national and local news outlets (Mother’s Day), and blogs (Mother’s Day and Father’s Day)
You can read the full report here.