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How much does it cost to talk to a loved one who is incarcerated in America? Depending on the state you’re in, you might have to pay up to $25 for a 15-minute phone call. It’s not surprising that a third of families with incarcerated loved ones go into debt simply trying to stay in touch with them. For Uzoma “Zo” Orchingwa, the “extremely exploitative” cost of communications for people who are incarcerated is unacceptable. “It damages low-income families by extracting resources and harms communities because the less contact someone who is incarcerated has with loved ones, the more likely they are to recidivate.” Orchingwa, who has a degree in criminology and is a joint-degree student at Yale Law School and Yale School of Management, considered how to bring change to this under-served community.
In the spring of 2020, he co-founded Ameelio, America’s first non-profit prison communications platform. “It damages low-income families by extracting resources and harms communities because the less contact someone who is incarcerated has with loved ones, the more likely they are to recidivate.” — Uzoma “Zo” Orchingwa The organization provides a free service for users to send letters, postcards, and other mail items to incarcerated loved ones. “Our vision Phone Number List is to disrupt the prison telecommunications industry, outcompeting incumbents by providing services that prioritize users over profits,” said Orchingwa. He says the $1.3 billion prison telecommunications industry is one of the most under-reported bad actors in the criminal justice space. Many telecommunications systems pay commissions to prison systems to get exclusive access. “Private equity knows they have a captive market and there’s no other method to stay in touch with family except what prisons provide,” he said.
We decided to focus on the 11 states that don’t have commission schemes and make it challenging for the status quo to continue by introducing a free alternative.” [Related read: How GiveDirectly grants cash, and the dignity of choice, to program recipients] How Ameelio works When users sign up for Letters for Families for free, they can write a message with up to 9,000 characters and attach photos and even send games through Ameelio’s website or mobile app. They can then track their letter’s progress as it makes its way through the USPS until their incarcerated loved one receives a hard copy of the letter. So far, Ameelio has served more than 220,000 families and sent over 1 million pieces of mail to over 250,000 people who are incarcerated. The organization plans to scale to 10 states by the end of 2022. Ameelio also has a Letters for Organizations feature, which helps enable criminal justice, news organizations, voting groups, and other interested parties to connect with people who are incarcerated to help them in various ways.
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發表於 2023-9-12 19:15:41