Writing from my cell in the age of prison Wi-Fi

Two companies, ViaPath and Aventiv Technologies, form a duopoly that controls 80 percent of the $1.5 billion prison communications market. These two companies contract with nearly every correctional agency at the state, county, and federal levels, and the size of their kickbacks—money agencies earn from our communications—depends on how willing public officials are to allow price gouging. According to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, one-third of families with an incarcerated relative go into debt trying to stay in touch. That’s why reform advocates have been pressuring these companies for years to lower their rates. In 2023, Worth Rises and other advocacy organizations successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, requiring the Federal Communications Commission to regulate prison phone rates. In July 2024, the FCC voted to implement new rules in line with the bipartisan bill, including caps on phone call pricing and a ban on most kickbacks to corrections agencies. Yet on June 30, the FCC announced a two-year postponement of those rules, allowing excessive pricing to continue until at least April 2027.

[John J. Lennon is a contributing editor at Esquire, currently serving his 24th year behind bars at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.]