Help connect New York families with incarcerated loved ones

URGENT! The New York Assembly has included free prison communication in its one-house budget and the Senate is quickly taking interest. We need your help NOW to ensure free prison communication makes it into the final budget.

Families in New York are spending over $40 million each year to stay in touch with their incarcerated loved ones in state prisons and county jails, a cash cow for prison telecom vendors like Securus Technologies. As a result, one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt, and of those carrying this burden, 87% are women — largely Black and brown women. New York’s families should not have to choose between paying rent or paying for calls with their loved ones behind bars.

This exploitation is not just separating families, including children from their parents, but negatively impacting correctional staff and public safety. Incarcerated people who are in contact with their community are more likely to have hope, participate in rehabilitative programs, engage in positive behaviors while inside, and reenter society successfully upon release. Making communication free is the most cost-effective, evidence-based program a prison or jail could institute.

We should be encouraging communication and connecting families, not exploiting it and tearing them apart. Senate Bill 1942 and Assembly Bill 2164 would make communication free in New York's prisons and jails for incarcerated people and their families. With your support, we can pass these bills.

Several states and counties nationwide have already taken this important step, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Many others are currently considering it because the benefits are clear. Tell your elected representative that it’s time to protect New York’s families and promote public safety. 

Send an email and Tweet at your state elected officials to protect families and promote public safety by making prison and jail communication free in New York.