#Securus

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Prison-tech company bribed jails to ban in-person visits

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Beware of geeks bearing gifts. When prison-tech companies started offering "free" tablets to America's vast army of prisoners, it set off alarm-bells for prison reform advocates – but not for the law-enforcement agencies that manage the great American carceral enterprise.

The pitch from these prison-tech companies was that they could cut the costs of locking people up while making jails and prisons safer. Hell, they'd even make life better for prisoners. And they'd do it for free!

These prison tablets would give every prisoner their own phone and their own video-conferencing terminal. They'd supply email, of course, and all the world's books, music, movies and games. Prisoners could maintain connections with the outside world, from family to continuing education. Sounds too good to be true, huh?

Here's the catch: all of these services are blisteringly expensive. Prisoners are accustomed to being gouged on phone calls – for years, prisons have done deals with private telcos that charge a fortune for prisoners' calls and split the take with prison administrators – but even by those standards, the calls you make on a tablet are still a ripoff.

Sure, there are some prisoners for whom money is no object – wealthy people who screwed up so bad they can't get bail and are stewing in a county lockup, along with the odd rich murderer or scammer serving a long bid. But most prisoners are poor. They start poor – the cops are more likely to arrest poor people than rich people, even for the same crime, and the poorer you are, the more likely you are to get convicted or be suckered into a plea bargain with a long sentence. State legislatures are easy to whip up into a froth about minimum sentences for shoplifters who steal $7 deodorant sticks, but they are wildly indifferent to the store owner's rampant wage-theft. Wage theft is by far the most costly form of property crime in America and it is almost entirely ignored:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/15/wage-theft-us-workers-employees

So America's prisons are heaving with its poorest citizens, and they're certainly not getting any richer while they're inside. While many prisoners hold jobs – prisoners produce $2b/year in goods and $9b/year in services – the average prison wage is $0.52/hour:

https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2024/0324bowman.html

(In six states, prisoners get nothing; North Carolina law bans paying prisoners more than $1/day, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution explicitly permits slavery – forced labor without pay – for prisoners.)

Likewise, prisoners' families are poor. They start poor – being poor is a strong correlate of being an American prisoner – and then one of their breadwinners is put behind bars, taking their income with them. The family savings go to paying a lawyer.

Prison-tech is a bet that these poor people, locked up and paid $1/day or less; or their families, deprived of an earner and in debt to a lawyer; will somehow come up with cash to pay $13 for a 20-minute phone call, $3 for an MP3, or double the Kindle price for an ebook.

How do you convince a prisoner earning $0.52/hour to spend $13 on a phone-call?

Well, for Securus and Viapath (AKA Global Tellink) – a pair of private equity backed prison monopolists who have swallowed nearly all their competitors – the answer was simple: they bribed prison officials to get rid of the prison phones.

Not just the phones, either: a pair of Michigan suits brought by the Civil Rights Corps accuse sheriffs and the state Department of Corrections of ending in-person visits in exchange for kickbacks from the money that prisoners' families would pay once the only way to reach their loved ones was over the "free" tablets:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/jails-banned-family-visits-to-make-more-money-on-video-calls-lawsuits-claim/

These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg; Civil Rights Corps says there are hundreds of jails and prisons where Securus and Viapath have struck similar corrupt bargains:

https://civilrightscorps.org/case/port-huron-michigan-right2hug/

And it's not just visits and calls. Prison-tech companies have convinced jails and prisons to eliminate mail and parcels. Letters to prisoners are scanned and delivered their tablets, at a price. Prisoners – and their loved ones – have to buy virtual "postage stamps" and pay one stamp per "page" of email. Scanned letters (say, hand-drawn birthday cards from your kids) cost several stamps:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

Prisons and jails have also been convinced to eliminate their libraries and continuing education programs, and to get rid of TVs and recreational equipment. That way, prisoners will pay vastly inflated prices for streaming videos and DRM-locked music.

The icing on the cake? If the prison changes providers, all that data is wiped out – a prisoner serving decades of time will lose their music library, their kids' letters, the books they love. They can get some of that back – by working for $1/day – but the personal stuff? It's just gone.

Readers of my novels know all this. A prison-tech scam just like the one described in the Civil Rights Corps suits is at the center of my latest novel The Bezzle:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Prison-tech has haunted me for years. At first, it was just the normal horror anyone with a shred of empathy would feel for prisoners and their families, captive customers for sadistic "businesses" that have figured out how to get the poorest, most desperate people in the country to make them billions. In the novel, I call prison-tech "a machine":

a million-­armed robot whose every limb was tipped with a needle that sank itself into a different place on prisoners and their families and drew out a few more cc’s of blood.

But over time, that furious empathy gave way to dread. Prisoners are at the bottom of the shitty technology adoption curve. They endure the technological torments that haven't yet been sanded down on their bodies, normalized enough to impose them on people with a little more privilege and agency. I'm a long way up the curve from prisoners, but while the shitty technology curve may grind slow, it grinds fine:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

The future isn't here, it's just not evenly distributed. Prisoners are the ultimate early adopters of the technology that the richest, most powerful, most sadistic people in the country's corporate board-rooms would like to force us all to use.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch

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[brinaarcadia]

DEFILER

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: FCC fines wireless carriers, REPORT Act, broadband labels, T-Mobile now owns Mint Mobile, Affordable Connectivity Program rescue options

This week starts with the wireless trade group CTIA’s 5G Summit on Monday but otherwise doesn’t have too much in the way of appointments or deadlines–which after the end-of-the-month crush last week feels like a real treat. (Speaking of stories written in the last hours of April, I wrote a post for Patreon readers Tuesday about the unpredictable nature of WordAds income here.) 4/29/2024: FCC…

[infinitemonkeytheory]

Civil Rights Corps filed the lawsuits on March 15 against the county governments, two county sheriffs, and two prison phone companies. The suits filed in county courts seek class-action status on behalf of people unable to visit family members detained in the local jails, including children who have been unable to visit their parents.

[youknowwho-mustnotbenamed]

December 01 - breeze | Jegulus | word count: 860 | @taylorswiftmicrofic

There is something wrong that James needs to remedy right away.

It is fairly easily fixed, and yet, he finds himself fretting over it. Like the clock is winding out of time, and if he isn’t there before it strikes midnight, all will be lost. His heart stumbles in his chest while his feet stumble down the stairs. He needs to go faster. And yet, he is slowed by his clumsy feet who seem determined to trip him up at every turn. And the stairs which rarely seem to cooperate with him. He ends up taking the longer route round the castle even though waiting for the stairs would probably be faster. But he can’t stand still, not when he could be moving.

When he arrives at the tower—a nondescript one at the far corner of the castle that rarely anybody knows about let alone visits—he is out of breath. Still, he pushes through, climbing the stairs on numb legs. Once he is at the top, all of this will be worth it. All he has to do is set eyes on his face, and all will be right.

He bursts through the door at the op, and immediately doubles over, chest heaving.

“Potter? What are—are you alright?”

“Yes, fine. Just…” He sinks to the ground, struggling to keep his chest upright so he can breathe properly. It’s not working. No matter how hard he tries, the air just won’t make it’s way into his lungs. He is going to suffocate. He is going to die up here on this tower with nobody but Regulus as witness.

“Respirare Securus.” Regulus mutters, and his lungs fill with air again. As he sucks in a full breath, he looks properly at the boy hovering uncertainly over him. His eyes are darker, a touch of concern in them he is doing his best to conceal. But James can see it. The small crinkle in his brow and scrunch of his nose. The way his head subtly follows James’ as he drags himself into a proper sitting position.

“Where did you learn that?”

“A book.”

“Right. Why did you learn it?”

“None of your business.”

“Right.”

As his racing heart slows to a steady and reliable thump, he starts to take in his surroundings properly. The gentle breeze that carries the scent of pine. The blanket of stars stretching overhead. Regulus whose eyes are darting between the view and James’ face. Away, back again. Away, back again.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, right! You were up here alone. I knew you would be, but you shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

Regulus merely raises a brow in response.

“Nobody should be alone on their birthday.”

“It’s nothing special.”

“it is.” He implores, searching for something, anything to show Regulus understands. “I got you something.” He reaches into his pocket, almost panicking when his hand doesn’t find the package. Luckily, he expected this, and hide in in the safer inner pocket he rarely ever uses.

“I don’t want it.”

“I think you do. Come on, Regulus. It’s been months, stop acting like you don’t want to be my friend.”

“Friend.” The word falls flat between them. A question. A statement. An answer. Everything and nothing. How can one little word have so much meaning? How can one little word be so insignificant?

“Yes.” Obviously, he wants more. But he won’t do anything to scare the other boy off. Not when he’s made so much progress. Regulus went from a closed off shell of a sickly boy, to a hesitant yet talkative maybe-friend. And sometimes, he does think he catches glimpses of something more between them, but James has always been optimistic when it comes to other people’s feelings toward him, so he was probably imagining it. If only there weren’t a small nagging part of his brain whispering, but what if you weren’t? at all times.

“I sneak up here every night just to spend time with you.” He holds the box out again.

His time, Regulus doesn’t reject it. Instead, he slowly reaches out and takes it. Even slower, he removes the bow and opens the box.

“A quill?”

“Not just any quill. I remember you mentioned you preferred the feel of a quill to that pen I got for you, but the ease of not having to re-ink the tip of the pen. So, I just enchanted the quill so it never runs out of ink just like the pen. That way you have your favorite from both in one. The spell will eventually wear off, but you no longer have to worry about having ink on you. You can write whenever the inspiration strikes.”

“James…” He is shocked to find Regulus’ eyes brimming with tears. “Why?”

“Because you are always talking about—”

“No. Why?” There is so much in that question. So much risk, and yet also so much potential. Regulus’ desperate need to know things, and James desperate need to give them. How much give and take will there be before one of them breaks?

“Because I like you, Regulus. I really do. And you deserve so much.”

[infwctednyacifier]

hi uhh can we request an alter thats based off weirdcore with like neon-ish/bright colors if that makes any sense?

-🔮💎

🧪⋆｡ 🌀 ₊˚💫 ˚. SINGLE, ORIGINAL = NEON WEIRDCORE ALTER – A SECURUS

Name – Fayme „ Wisteria „ Yaely

Age – ageless / immortal

Gender – cisboy „ boything „ b☆ything „ weirdcoric „ kidcoric „ backroomic „ liminalgender „ backroomentitygender „ fawnthing „ sleepylix „ sleepyfreak „ dreamthing „ seaofstaric „ sleepyfluffybatic „ thespotgender ( doesn't exist „ unfortunately „ but needs to ) „ neoncoric „ arcadecoric

Pronouns – he / him „ it / it's „ xe / xem „ lullaby / lullaby „ lume / lume's „ light / light's „ sol / sol's „ lala / lala's „ soft / soft's „ fluff / fluff's „ plushie / plushie's „

Orientation – androsexual „ achillean „ hypersexual

Role – little brother figure „ director „ bunnykid

Species – humanoid Backrooms creature

Emojis – 🧪 „ 💫 „ 🌀 „ ☢️ „ 🏮 „ 🔦

Likes – liminal spaces & The Backrooms „ indoor gyms & indoor swimming gyms & arcades „ plushies & soft pillows „ bright colors „ accessories ( jewelry „ hair clips „ pins „ especially childish / DIY / from friends )

Extra – loves swimming because it calms him down . Has sensory issues and hates squishy / slimy textures .

Aesthetics – glowwave „ arcadecore „ weirdcore „ kidcore

Faceclaims –

[theoutcastrogue]

Two lawsuits filed by a civil rights group allege that county jails in Michigan banned in-person visits in order to maximize revenue from voice and video calls as part of a "quid pro quo kickback scheme" with prison phone companies.

Civil Rights Corps filed the lawsuits on March 15 against the county governments, two county sheriffs, and two prison phone companies. The suits filed in county courts seek class-action status on behalf of people unable to visit family members detained in the local jails, including children who have been unable to visit their parents. ...

Each year, thousands of people spend months in the county jails, the lawsuit said. Many of the detainees have not been convicted of any crime and are awaiting trial; if they are convicted and receive long sentences, they are transferred to the Michigan Department of Corrections. ...

The Michigan counties are far from alone in implementing visitation bans, Civil Rights Corps said in a lawsuit announcement. "Across the United States, hundreds of jails have eliminated in-person family visits over the last decade," the group said, adding:

Why has this happened? The answer highlights a profound flaw in how decisions too often get made in our legal system: for-profit jail telecom companies realized that they could earn more profit from phone and video calls if jails eliminated free in-person visits for families. So the companies offered sheriffs and county jails across the country a deal: if you eliminate family visits, we'll give you a cut of the increased profits from the larger number of calls. This led to a wave across the country, as local jails sought to supplement their budgets with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from some of the poorest families in our society.

St. Clair County implemented its family visitation ban in September 2017, "prohibiting people from visiting their family members detained inside the county jail," Civil Rights Corps alleged. This "decision was part of a quid pro quo kickback scheme with Securus Technologies, a for-profit company that contracts with jails to charge the families of incarcerated persons exorbitant rates to communicate with one another through 'services' such as low-quality phone and video calls," the lawsuit said.

Under the contract, "Securus pays the County 50 percent of the $12.99 price tag for every 20-minute video call and 78 percent of the $0.21 per minute cost of every phone call," the lawsuit said. The contract has "a guarantee that Securus would pay the County at least $190,000 each year," the St. Clair County lawsuit said.

[thoughtportal]

Last week, the nation’s largest prison and jail telecom corporation, Securus, effectively defaulted on more than a billion dollars of debt. After decades of preying on incarcerated people and their loved ones with exploitative call rates and other predatory practices that have driven millions of families into debt, Securus is being crushed under the weight of its own. In March, the company’s creditors gave the corporation an eight-month extension to pay up, urging its sale to a new owner to stave off an otherwise imminent bankruptcy. 

Securus is one of two corporations that dominate roughly 80 percent of the U.S. prison telecom industry, forming an effective duopoly that thrives on the captive markets found inside the nation’s lockups. Both companies are owned by private-equity firms: Securus, by Platinum Equity, and ViaPath (previously Global Tel Link), by American Securities.

The slow death of the largest player in this space is not accidental. It follows six years of intense advocacy to expose the vulnerability of the prison telecom industry’s business model on both ethical and economic grounds. Organizers have waged a strategic war against Securus, educating investors and the public about the company’s predatory practices while successfully advocating for legislation and regulation to rein them in.

With Platinum now on the hook to pay $1.3 billion of Securus debt this year following a series of failed attempts to refinance, bankruptcy seems inevitable. The company’s failure would represent a remarkable victory for advocates—and a potential beginning of the end for the prison telecom industry as we know it.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How to shatter the class solidarity of the ruling class

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me WEDNESDAY (Apr 11) at UCLA, then Chicago (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Audre Lorde counsels us that "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," while MLK said "the law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me." Somewhere between replacing the system and using the system lies a pragmatic – if easily derailed – course.

Lorde is telling us that a rotten system can't be redeemed by using its own chosen reform mechanisms. King's telling us that unless we live, we can't fight – so anything within the system that makes it easier for your comrades to fight on can hasten the end of the system.

Take the problems of journalism. One old model of journalism funding involved wealthy newspaper families profiting handsomely by selling local appliance store owners the right to reach the townspeople who wanted to read sports-scores. These families expressed their patrician love of their town by peeling off some of those profits to pay reporters to sit through municipal council meetings or even travel overseas and get shot at.

In retrospect, this wasn't ever going to be a stable arrangement. It relied on both the inconstant generosity of newspaper barons and the absence of a superior way to show washing-machine ads to people who might want to buy washing machines. Neither of these were good long-term bets. Not only were newspaper barons easily distracted from their sense of patrician duty (especially when their own power was called into question), but there were lots of better ways to connect buyers and sellers lurking in potentia.

All of this was grossly exacerbated by tech monopolies. Tech barons aren't smarter or more evil than newspaper barons, but they have better tools, and so now they take 51 cents out of every ad dollar and 30 cents out of ever subscriber dollar and they refuse to deliver the news to users who explicitly requested it, unless the news company pays them a bribe to "boost" their posts:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

The news is important, and people sign up to make, digest, and discuss the news for many non-economic reasons, which means that the news continues to struggle along, despite all the economic impediments and the vulture capitalists and tech monopolists who fight one another for which one will get to take the biggest bite out of the press. We've got outstanding nonprofit news outlets like Propublica, journalist-owned outlets like 404 Media, and crowdfunded reporters like Molly White (and winner-take-all outlets like the New York Times).

But as Hamilton Nolan points out, "that pot of money…is only large enough to produce a small fraction of the journalism that was being produced in past generations":

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/what-will-replace-advertising-revenue

For Nolan, "public funding of journalism is the only way to fix this…If we accept that journalism is not just a business or a form of entertainment but a public good, then funding it with public money makes perfect sense":

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/public-funding-of-journalism-is-the

Having grown up in Canada – under the CBC – and then lived for a quarter of my life in the UK – under the BBC – I am very enthusiastic about Nolan's solution. There are obvious problems with publicly funded journalism, like the politicization of news coverage:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/24/panel-approving-richard-sharp-as-bbc-chair-included-tory-party-donor

And the transformation of the funding into a cheap political football:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-defund-cbc-change-law-1.6810434

But the worst version of those problems is still better than the best version of the private-equity-funded model of news production.

But Nolan notes the emergence of a new form of hedge fund news, one that is awfully promising, and also terribly fraught: Hunterbrook Media, an investigative news outlet owned by short-sellers who pay journalists to research and publish damning reports on companies they hold a short position on:

https://hntrbrk.com/

For those of you who are blissfully distant from the machinations of the financial markets, "short selling" is a wager that a company's stock price will go down. A gambler who takes a short position on a company's stock can make a lot of money if the company stumbles or fails altogether (but if the company does well, the short can suffer literally unlimited losses).

Shorts have historically paid analysts to dig into companies and uncover the sins hidden on their balance-sheets, but as Matt Levine points out, journalists work for a fraction of the price of analysts and are at least as good at uncovering dirt as MBAs are:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-04-02/a-hedge-fund-that-s-also-a-newspaper

What's more, shorts who discover dirt on a company still need to convince journalists to publicize their findings and trigger the sell-off that makes their short position pay off. Shorts who own a muckraking journalistic operation can skip this step: they are the journalists.

There's a way in which this is sheer genius. Well-funded shorts who don't care about the news per se can still be motivated into funding freely available, high-quality investigative journalism about corporate malfeasance (notoriously, one of the least attractive forms of journalism for advertisers). They can pay journalists top dollar – even bid against each other for the most talented journalists – and supply them with all the tools they need to ply their trade. A short won't ever try the kind of bullshit the owners of Vice pulled, paying themselves millions while their journalists lose access to Lexisnexis or the PACER database:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/#when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-give-a-solitary-single-fuck

The shorts whose journalists are best equipped stand to make the most money. What's not to like?

Well, the issue here is whether the ruling class's sense of solidarity is stronger than its greed. The wealthy have historically oscillated between real solidarity (think of the ultrawealthy lobbying to support bipartisan votes for tax cuts and bailouts) and "war of all against all" (as when wealthy colonizers dragged their countries into WWI after the supply of countries to steal ran out).

After all, the reason companies engage in the scams that shorts reveal is that they are profitable. "Behind every great fortune is a great crime," and that's just great. You don't win the game when you get into heaven, you win it when you get into the Forbes Rich List.

Take monopolies: investors like the upside of backing an upstart company that gobbles up some staid industry's margins – Amazon vs publishing, say, or Uber vs taxis. But while there's a lot of upside in that move, there's also a lot of risk: most companies that set out to "disrupt" an industry sink, taking their investors' capital down with them.

Contrast that with monopolies: backing a company that merges with its rivals and buys every small company that might someday grow large is a sure thing. Shriven of "wasteful competition," a company can lower quality, raise prices, capture its regulators, screw its workers and suppliers and laugh all the way to Davos. A big enough company can ignore the complaints of those workers, customers and regulators. They're not just too big to fail. They're not just too big to jail. They're too big to care:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Would-be monopolists are stuck in a high-stakes Prisoner's Dilemma. If they cooperate, they can screw over everyone else and get unimaginably rich. But if one party defects, they can raid the monopolist's margins, short its stock, and snitch to its regulators.

It's true that there's a clear incentive for hedge-fund managers to fund investigative journalism into other hedge-fund managers' portfolio companies. But it would be even more profitable for both of those hedgies to join forces and collude to screw the rest of us over. So long as they mistrust each other, we might see some benefit from that adversarial relationship. But the point of the 0.1% is that there aren't very many of them. The Aspen Institute can rent a hall that will hold an appreciable fraction of that crowd. They buy their private jets and bespoke suits and powdered rhino horn from the same exclusive sellers. Their kids go to the same elite schools. They know each other, and they have every opportunity to get drunk together at a charity ball or a society wedding and cook up a plan to join forces.

This is the problem at the core of "mechanism design" grounded in "rational self-interest." If you try to create a system where people do the right thing because they're selfish assholes, you normalize being a selfish asshole. Eventually, the selfish assholes form a cozy little League of Selfish Assholes and turn on the rest of us.

Appeals to morality don't work on unethical people, but appeals to immorality crowds out ethics. Take the ancient split between "free software" (software that is designed to maximize the freedom of the people who use it) and "open source software" (identical to free software, but promoted as a better way to make robust code through transparency and peer review).

Over the years, open source – an appeal to your own selfish need for better code – triumphed over free software, and its appeal to the ethics of a world of "software freedom." But it turns out that while the difference between "open" and "free" was once mere semantics, it's fully possible to decouple the two. Today, we have lots of "open source": you can see the code that Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook uses, and even contribute your labor to it for free. But you can't actually decide how the software you write works, because it all takes a loop through Google, Microsoft, Apple or Facebook's servers, and only those trillion-dollar tech monopolists have the software freedom to determine how those servers work:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/04/which-side-are-you-on/#tivoization-and-beyond

That's ruling class solidarity. The Big Tech firms have hidden a myriad of sins beneath their bafflegab and balance-sheets. These (as yet) undiscovered scams constitute a "bezzle," which JK Galbraith defined as "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it."

The purpose of Hunterbrook is to discover and destroy bezzles, hastening the moment of realization that the wealth we all feel in a world of seemingly orderly technology is really an illusion. Hunterbrook certainly has its pick of bezzles to choose from, because we are living in a Golden Age of the Bezzle.

Which is why I titled my new novel The Bezzle. It's a tale of high-tech finance scams, starring my two-fisted forensic accountant Marty Hench, and in this volume, Hench is called upon to unwind a predatory prison-tech scam that victimizes the most vulnerable people in America – our army of prisoners – and their families:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

The scheme I fictionalize in The Bezzle is very real. Prison-tech monopolists like Securus and Viapath bribe prison officials to abolish calls, in-person visits, mail and parcels, then they supply prisoners with "free" tablets where they pay hugely inflated rates to receive mail, speak to their families, and access ebooks, distance education and other electronic media:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch

But a group of activists have cornered these high-tech predators, run them to ground and driven them to the brink of extinction, and they've done it using "the master's tools" – with appeals to regulators and the finance sector itself.

Writing for The Appeal, Dana Floberg and Morgan Duckett describe the campaign they waged with Worth Rises to bankrupt the prison-tech sector:

https://theappeal.org/securus-bankruptcy-prison-telecom-industry/

Here's the headline figure: Securus is $1.8 billion in debt, and it has eight months to find a financier or it will go bust. What's more, all the creditors it might reasonably approach have rejected its overtures, and its bonds have been downrated to junk status. It's a dead duck.

Even better is how this happened. Securus's debt problems started with its acquisition, a leveraged buyout by Platinum Equity, who borrowed heavily against the firm and then looted it with bogus "management fees" that meant that the debt continued to grow, despite Securus's $700m in annual revenue from America's prisoners. Platinum was just the last in a long line of PE companies that loaded up Securus with debt and merged it with its competitors, who were also mortgaged to make profits for other private equity funds.

For years, Securus and Platinum were able to service their debt and roll it over when it came due. But after Worth Rises got NYC to pass a law making jail calls free, creditors started to back away from Securus. It's one thing for Securus to charge $18 for a local call from a prison when it's splitting the money with the city jail system. But when that $18 needs to be paid by the city, they're going to demand much lower prices. To make things worse for Securus, prison reformers got similar laws passed in San Francisco and in Connecticut.

Securus tried to outrun its problems by gobbling up one of its major rivals, Icsolutions, but Worth Rises and its coalition convinced regulators at the FCC to block the merger. Securus abandoned the deal:

https://worthrises.org/blogpost/securusmerger

Then, Worth Rises targeted Platinum Equity, going after the pension funds and other investors whose capital Platinum used to keep Securus going. The massive negative press campaign led to eight-figure disinvestments:

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-05/la-fi-tom-gores-securus-prison-phone-mass-incarceration

Now, Securus's debt became "distressed," trading at $0.47 on the dollar. A brief, covid-fueled reprieve gave Securus a temporary lifeline, as prisoners' families were barred from in-person visits and had to pay Securus's rates to talk to their incarcerated loved ones. But after lockdown, Securus's troubles picked up right where they left off.

They targeted Platinum's founder, Tom Gores, who papered over his bloody fortune by styling himself as a philanthropist and sports-team owner. After a campaign by Worth Rises and Color of Change, Gores was kicked off the Los Angeles County Museum of Art board. When Gores tried to flip Securus to a SPAC – the same scam Trump pulled with Truth Social – the negative publicity about Securus's unsound morals and financials killed the deal:

https://twitter.com/WorthRises/status/1578034977828384769

Meanwhile, more states and cities are making prisoners' communications free, further worsening Securus's finances:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

Congress passed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, giving the FCC the power to regulate the price of federal prisoners' communications. Securus's debt prices tumbled further:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1541

Securus's debts were coming due: it owes $1.3b in 2024, and hundreds of millions more in 2025. Platinum has promised a $400m cash infusion, but that didn't sway S&P Global, a bond-rating agency that re-rated Securus's bonds as "CCC" (compare with "AAA"). Moody's concurred. Now, Securus is stuck selling junk-bonds:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1541

The company's creditors have given Securus an eight-month runway to find a new lender before they force it into bankruptcy. The company's debt is trading at $0.08 on the dollar.

Securus's major competitor is Viapath (prison tech is a duopoly). Viapath is also debt-burdened and desperate, thanks to a parallel campaign by Worth Rises, and has tried all of Securus's tricks, and failed:

https://pestakeholder.org/news/american-securities-fails-to-sell-prison-telecom-company-viapath/

Viapath's debts are due next year, and if Securus tanks, no one in their right mind will give Viapath a dime. They're the walking dead.

Worth Rise's brilliant guerrilla warfare against prison-tech and its private equity backers are a master class in using the master's tools to dismantle the master's house. The finance sector isn't a friend of justice or working people, but sometimes it can be used tactically against financialization itself. To paraphrase MLK, "finance can't make a corporation love you, but it can stop a corporation from destroying you."

Yes, the ruling class finds solidarity at the most unexpected moments, and yes, it's easy for appeals to greed to institutionalize greediness. But whether it's funding unbezzling journalism through short selling, or freeing prisons by brandishing their cooked balance-sheets in the faces of bond-rating agencies, there's a lot of good we can do on the way to dismantling the system.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/money-talks/#bullshit-walks

Image: KMJ (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boerse_01_KMJ.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[turangalila]

Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) Missa Pro defunctis [Missarum senis et octonis vocibus. Liber primus. (Angelo Gardano, Venice, 1607.)]

– I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, / et lux perpetua luceat eis. / Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, / et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. / Exaudi orationem meam; / ad te omnis caro veniet. / Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine / et lux perpetua luceat eis.

– II. Kyrie.

– III. Graduale: Si ambulem. Si ambulem in medio umbrae mortis, non timebo mala: quoniam tu mecum es, Domine. Virga tua et baculus tuus, ipsa me consolata sunt.

– IV. Sequentia: Dies irae Dies iræ, dies illa, / Solvet sæclum in favilla, / Teste David cum Sibylla! / Quantus tremor est futurus, / quando iudex est venturus, / cuncta stricte discussurus! // Tuba mirum spargens sonum / per sepulcra regionum, / coget omnes ante thronum. / Mors stupebit et Natura, / cum resurget creatura, / iudicanti responsura. / Liber scriptus proferetur, / in quo totum continetur, / unde Mundus iudicetur. / Iudex ergo cum sedebit, / quidquid latet apparebit, / nil inultum remanebit. / Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? / Quem patronum rogaturus, / cum vix iustus sit securus? // Rex tremendæ maiestatis, / qui salvandos salvas gratis, / salva me, fons pietatis. // Recordare, Iesu pie, / quod sum causa tuæ viæ; / ne me perdas illa die. / Quærens me, sedisti lassus, / redemisti crucem passus, / tantus labor non sit cassus. / Iuste Iudex ultionis, /donum fac remissionis / ante diem rationis. // Ingemisco, tamquam reus, / culpa rubet vultus meus, / supplicanti parce Deus. / Qui Mariam absolvisti, / et latronem exaudisti, / mihi quoque spem dedisti. / Preces meæ non sunt dignæ, / sed tu bonus fac benigne, / ne perenni cremer igne. / Inter oves locum præsta, / et ab hædis me sequestra, / statuens in parte dextra. // Confutatis maledictis, / flammis acribus addictis, / voca me cum benedictis. / Oro supplex et acclinis, / cor contritum quasi cinis, / gere curam mei finis. // Lacrimosa dies illa, / qua resurget ex favilla / iudicandus homo reus. / Huic ergo parce, Deus. / Pie Iesu Domine, / dona eis requiem. // Amen.//

– V. Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe Domine, Iesu Christe, Rex gloriae, / libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum / de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu. / Libera eas de ore leonis, / ne absorbeat eas tartarus, / ne cadant in obscurum. / Sed signifer sanctus Michael / repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam, / quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.

– VI. Sanctus

– VII. Agnus Dei

– VIII. Communio: Lux aeterna Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, / cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, / quia pius es. / Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, / et lux perpetua luceat eis: / Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

_

Orazio Vecchi – Requiem. Rubens's Funeral And The Antwerp Baroque. Graindelavoix. Björn Schmelzer (2017, Glossa – GCD P32113)

[tussive]

Ugh my friend is incarcerated and I'm having such a nightmare of getting in touch with her. Securus keeps declining my card and then I forget to call my bank and then I run out of money and have to wait until payday. I finally called the bank today and they're not declining it, so Securus is for some reason so now I have to contact their customer support I guess?

It's ridiculous how hard they make it to talk to your loved ones when they're in jail.

[leonidas-zalam]

Bobfort EGO Pollution Madness

Hi, today I want to introduce you to Bobfort a boy with a deep desire for power, leader of Kemono Band, He has managed to keep his gang safe thanks to a strange Kanabo that he stole from a Securus squad, this Kanabo provides him with superhuman strength, but the cost of that strength may be more than he can pay.

[swagperfectionnightmare]

30 yr Young Female Native, Lookin for a Pen-Pal and then some.... ;-)

Joanna Frank ADC# 318643.

ASPC- Perryville.

P.O. Box 3700. Goodyear, AZ. 85338.

Hello, My name is Joanna but i prefer Jojo. :) I am 30 years old, 5'3. 150Ibs. I'm Native from Arizona. I'm shy at first. Until you get to know me, I love drawing. Im good at it. IG. Some say I have patience, I say I have PASSION! (ART, I love it!) I like meeting new people. Learning your likes/dislikes. I'm drawn to funny people and intellect. Nothing wrong with stimulating thee mind! :) I'm down to earth. I love, love. I'm BIG on respect and I live by loyalty. If your interested in getting to know more of me, You can download the Securus mobile app on your playstore and hit me. So we can get to know each other. My name is Joanna Frank ADC# 318643. I got time for you, If you got time for me.

[infwctednyacifier]

hi-hi uh, coukd we request a funtime foxy fnaf alter? uh sorry if requests are closed. ^^

(uh, same person who requested the ft freddy one too, may we use 🔮💎 as an anon tag if thats alright?? Sorry!!^^)

🎤⋆｡ 💳 ₊˚🎭 ˚. SINGLE, SISTER LOCATION / FNAF 5 = FUNTIME FOXY – A SECURUS

srry this took a while !! My mom randomly came in and told me I needed to throw out trash and I found a BUNCH of stuff from a few years back that I used to play w like dolls n furniture n all that !!! + before that I was thinking of Gabriel Marez n Maria Luna from "Bless me, Ultima" cuz we been reading that in English class n I luv their dynamic !! >.<

Name – August „ Cassidy „ Elliot

Age – ageless / ( technically ) immortal

Gender – cisboy „ animatronical „ sysrobotic „ musicgender „ godgender „ corruptigender „ circusgender „ circuscoric

Pronouns – he / him „ handsome / handsome's „ single / sing's „ lyric / lyric's „ music / music's „ entertain / entertain's „ fame / fame's „ mirror / mirror's „ admire / admire's „ love / love's „ heart / heart's

Orientation – achillean „ androsexual „ hypersexual „ gay

Role – protector ( physical „ emotional „ verbal „ social ) „ anger holder „ narcissism holder ( if applicable ) „ ego holder ( if applicable ) „ BPD / Bipolar holder ( if applicable ) „ double agent „ manipulator ( doesn't have bad intentions and uses his role to help other headmates by doing things like withholding bad memories „ manipulating bad people „ etc )

Emojis – 🎤 „ 🎶 „ 🎭 „ 🎬 „ 💳 „ 💰

Likes – being worshipped „ his fans „ money „ anything that is a result of his infamy ( interviews „ merch „ partnerships „ etc ) „ Funtime Freddy

Extra – is kind of a toxic partner . Is manipulative and likes to see people suffer but „ when it comes to Funtime Freddy „ he keeps it to simple lies that do no harm and doesn ' t hurt Freddy . Is a singer and actor but „ unlike handsome ' s boyfriend „ sing actually managed to get extremely famous . Lyric flaunts music ' s wealth whenever entertain can . Fame tends to be more flustered around Funtime Freddy . Mirror loves to admire admireself . Love loves spoiling Funtime Freddy and tends to be more bashful / lustful around Funtime Freddy .

Aesthetics – feminine 80's male singer ( think; Prince ) „ 80's heartthrob „ 50's heartthrob ( leaning more looks & voice „ think 1930's Frank Sinatra )

Associated song – " Head over Heels " by Tears for Fears

Faceclaims –

[cocktailsfairytales]

🖤 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 🖤

𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄

(Alpha Nights: Unlikely Heroes Book 3) by Hayley Faiman now LIVE!

𝐎𝐍𝐄-𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘! 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝!

➜ https://mybook.to/HuntedInnocence

What to expect:

🖤 Office Romance

🖤 Touch her and X

🖤 Alpha Male

🖤 Dark Romance

🖤 Lots of Spice

🖤 Forced Proximity

🖤 Healing from Turmoil

🖤 Her Protector

BLURB:

The sweetest innocence hides the darkest secret, it’s only a matter of time before the darkness swallows them whole.

Grayson lives a quiet life. He’s not a ladies’ man like some of the other men at Securus. He keeps his head down, does his job, and sticks to the rules. He craves control. Stability. A world without surprises. He desires the uncomplicated.

Until her.

She’s part of their world—quick with a teasing smile and flirtatious glance. Everyone sees her as harmless, shy, and a bit of office candy. But there’s something about her that’s never sat right with Grayson.

There’s something about her that gnaws at him. A flicker in her eyes. A shadow in her smile. A secret no one else notices. She is anything but uncomplicated.

He knows he should look away. Getting involved would be reckless. Except she is theirs and they have no choice but to become immersed. But one taste of her, and it’s already too late.

She’s been on the run, hiding in plain sight. Her past is a fuse already lit, and when it blows, it won’t only consume her—it’ll take him down with her. If her violent ex finds her, she’s dead. And if Grayson steps in, the blood on his hands could cost him everything.

He’s not the kind of man to stand by and watch. Not when she’s his to protect. Not when the darkness already belongs to him.

Some ghosts don’t stay buried and some men won’t let you run.

Add to Goodreads:

https://bit.ly/HuntedInnocence-GR

Start the series with book 1, 𝑯𝑼𝑵���𝑬𝑫 𝑶𝑩𝑺𝑬𝑺𝑺𝑰𝑶𝑵!

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝!

https://books2read.com/HuntedObsession

More books by Hayley Faiman: https://www.hayleyfaiman.com/books

[traeuthaeou]

Sakura Miyawak -----------------AI-AIIH- HI AI Born: March 19, 1998 (age 27 years), Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Japan Johns Hopkins Homewood Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland

The prestigious and sprawling Johns Hopkins University campus in Homewood is home to tree-lined paths, traditional redbrick architecture, and a landmark clock tower. The campus features the Shriver Hall Concert Series and the Baltimore Museum of Art, as well as popular Wyman Park, Wyman Park Dell, and Stony Run Trail. The surrounding area has many taverns and casual eateries popular with students. ― Google

MARCH 11 1984 SECURUITY , MONTH , THREE - T RHEE SECURED

Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins

Terry Lee Hawkins Jr.

traeuthaeou

ALLAHTREU TREUALLAH TRUE SCRAMBLED LANGUAGEOLOGIST

Founder Terry.

Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins

Terry Lee Hawkins Jr

Blaze

Johns Hopkins Homewood Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland The prestigious and sprawling Johns Hopkins University campus in Homewood is home to tree-lined paths, traditional redbrick architecture, and a landmark clock tower. The campus features the Shriver Hall Concert Series and the Baltimore Museum of Art, as well as popular Wyman Park, Wyman Park Dell, and Stony Run Trail. The surrounding area has many taverns and casual eateries popular with students.

Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins is feeling blessed with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. 3 mins · Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins is feeling blessed with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. 11 mins · Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins is feeling professional with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. 1 min · Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins 4 mins · RAVENDOVE Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins was RavenDove - yin yin / yang RavenDove - yin yin / yang - COLD NUMB AND (LOVIEY DOVIEY) CALCULATED SPELL IT D or L Dove or Love maybe L or D Lover or Dover pythagorean numerology ABC123 Kauffman-Hawkins-Hawk or Hopk -H__kins aw or op and Hopkins signed Booper or just Boop not Book BUT LOKI OR BOOPER SAN with Blaze Pascal. with Terry Lee Hawkins ( male ) @ikigami shinigam HAWKINS HOKINSU/HOKINZU https://www.facebook.com/notes/terry-lee-kauffman-hawkins/bac-formula-racing-f3-series-bac-mission-statement/2296158727310875/ — feeling professional with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. YES=Y=YES / NO=N=NO

Blaze

India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country from June 2023 onwards; and since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Wikipedia

Blaze

Johns Hopkins Homewood

Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland

Blaze

traeuthaeou

5m ago

YORK OR WORK HOSPITAL Y LETTER 15 W LETTER 23

The University of Maryland, Baltimore is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1807, it is the second oldest college in Maryland and comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, social work and nursing in the United States. Wikipedia

Avg cost after aid

––

Graduation rate

95%

Acceptance rate

––Graduation rate is for non-first-time, full-time undergraduate students who graduated within 6 years. They were the largest group of students (75%) according to the 2022–23 College Scorecard data ·more 

From US Dept of Education · Learn more

Address: 

620 W Lexington St, Baltimore, MD 21201

Address: 620 W Lexington St, Baltimore, MD 21201

Phone: (410) 706-3100

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traeuthaeou

2m ago

ALLAH STEP ONE .. GOD TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE NOT A TWELVE STEP LETTER A TO L PROGRAM AT JOHNS HOPKINS AND GOD OR DOG . CHIP HOUSE HUOJINSEN YOU AN ADULT I AM REPORTING TO YOU. H O U S E - H U O J I N S E N . HAWKINGSON TERRY LEE - SOBRIQUET BOOPER BOOPPER THEOS LOKI TEREMY

Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins

is with

Terry Lee Hawkins Jr.

May 9 at 4:48 PM

·

Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins is feeling blessed with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. 3 mins · Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins is feeling blessed with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. 11 mins · Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins is feeling professional with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. 1 min · Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins 4 mins · RAVENDOVE Terry Lee Kauffman Hawkins was RavenDove - yin yin / yang RavenDove - yin yin / yang - COLD NUMB AND (LOVIEY DOVIEY) CALCULATED SPELL IT D or L Dove or Love maybe L or D Lover or Dover pythagorean numerology ABC123 Kauffman-Hawkins-Hawk or Hopk -H__kins aw or op and Hopkins signed Booper or just Boop not Book BUT LOKI OR BOOPER SAN with Blaze Pascal. with Terry Lee Hawkins ( male ) @ikigami shinigam HAWKINS HOKINSU/HOKINZU https://www.facebook.com/notes/terry-lee-kauffman-hawkins/bac-formula-racing-f3-series-bac-mission-statement/2296158727310875/ — feeling professional with Terry Lee Hawkins Jr. YES=Y=YES / NO=N=NO

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Enoch Pratt Free Library

4.6301 Google reviews

Public library in Baltimore, Maryland

Website

Directions

Reviews

Save

Share

Call

Description

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is the free public library system of Baltimore, Maryland. Its Central Library is located on 400 Cathedral Street and occupies the northeastern three quarters of a city block ... Wikipedia

Departments: Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled

Address: 400 Cathedral St, Baltimore, MD 21201

Architect: Edward Lippincott Tilton

Hours: 

Open ⋅ Closes 8 PM · More hours

Opened: 1882

Phone: (410) 396-5430

Branches: 22

Director: Chad Helton, President and CEO

Johns Hopkins Homewood

Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland

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#Youtube

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