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
Media Inquiries
Paul Wright -
Human Rights Defense Center -
561.360.2523
Press Releases
HRDC, along with 68 other organizations nationwide, filed a comment with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urging them to add language related to protecting the finances of released prisoners to a proposed rule regarding regulation of prepaid debit cards.
Press Coverage
Malihe Razazan, KALW Radio San Francisco, August 18, 2015
Jack Hitt, Mother Jones Magazine, July 31, 2015
Brian Dolinar, Truthout, July 25, 2015
Eric Markowitz, International Business Times, July 10, 2015
Huff Post, by Ben Walsh, June 10, 2015
Scott Broden, Daily News Journal, June 7, 2015
Dave Maass, Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 5, 2015
Matt Stroud and Joshua Brustein, Bloomberg, April 27, 2015
Marcia Heroux Pounds, Sun Sentinel, April 25, 2015
PR Newswire, April 24, 2015
John Washington, Al Jazeera, April 23, 2015
Nick Chiles, Atlanta Blackstar, April 22, 2015
Amadou Diallo, Al Jazeera, April 20, 2015
Ray Downs, The New Times (Broward/Palm Beach), March 31, 2015
Pat Beall, Palm Beach, March 30, 2015
Daniel Wagner, Center for Public Integrity, March 25, 2015
Herb Weisbaum, NBC News, March 24, 2015
Prison Legal News, March 16, 2015
Erik de la Garza, Courthouse News, March 13, 2015
Amirah Al Idrus, Center for Public Integrity, March 13, 2015
Stan Alcorn, Marketplace, January 28, 2015
Adam Carpinelli, KBOO Portland, December 29, 2014
Truth-Out, November 1, 2014
Dina Gusovsky, CNBC, October 30, 2014
Daniel Wagner, Center for Public Integrity, October 2, 2014
CNBC, October 1, 2014
The Center for Public Integrity, September 30, 2014
The Des Moines Register Editorial Board, March 30, 2014
BJ Austin, Kera News, January 8, 2013
