Twilio has earned a progressive reputation for its explicit anti-racism and good corporate citizenship. But it sells video calling services to a prison telecom vendor that faces scrutiny for predatory pricing.
In October 2020, amid pressure from criminal and racial justice advocacy groups, billionaire private equity owner of the prison telecommunications company Securus Tom Gores resigned from the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The activist groups that forced Gores’s resignation, Worth Rises and Color of Change, wrote that the museum’s board should remove Gores because his company “makes over $700 million annually by price-gouging families—that are disproportionately Black and low-income—as they struggle to stay connected to their incarcerated loved ones.”
Messed up! in Michigan, a 15-minute call from jail could cost as much as $22, whereas that call from state prison would come out to just under $2.50. In Illinois, a typical jail call is more than 50 times more expensive than a call from state prison!!!
This drives me crazy prisoners that are all ready in F’ed up situation are paying like $14 a minute for a call?!! What the hell is that about?