The $1.4 Billion Extraction Machine: How Georgia Families Subsidize a Prison Communications Monopoly

Executive Summary

Two private equity-backed corporations—Securus Technologies and ViaPath Technologies—control approximately 80% of the U.S. prison communications market, operating state-granted monopolies across 3,450 facilities serving 1.1 million people. Georgia is deeply embedded in this extraction system:

• Georgia collected $8,062,200.60 in commission kickbacks from prison phone revenue in fiscal year 2018–2019—the third-highest total in the nation—creating a direct financial incentive for the state to maintain high communication costs.
• Georgia families pay $115–$135 per month for regular contact with an incarcerated loved one in state prison, including phone calls ($0.06/minute), email stamps ($0.20–$0.35 each), money transfers ($3.50–$6.50 per transaction), and video calls. County jail families pay 3–4 times more.
• The FCC’s historic 2024 rate caps were reversed in 2025, with October 2025 interim rules raising maximum phone rates by 83% (from $0.06 to $0.11/minute) and costing families nationwide an estimated additional $215 million per year.
• Six states have eliminated prison phone charges entirely, demonstrating the viability of an alternative model. Georgia has passed no legislation and advanced no bills despite its third-place national ranking in kickback revenue.
• One in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt to maintain contact, with 87% of the financial burden carried by women—disproportionately women of color.

Key Takeaway: Georgia ranks third nationally in prison phone kickback revenue while six other states have made calls free, and the state’s General Assembly has taken no legislative action to address the $1.4 billion extraction system.

Fiscal Impact

Revenue the State Collects from Families

Georgia received $8,062,200.60 in commission kickbacks from prison phone revenue in fiscal year 2018–2019. This revenue flows from a system in which the state awards exclusive monopoly contracts to a single provider, then collects a percentage of every dollar families spend to stay in contact with incarcerated loved ones. The national average commission rate has historically been above 40%.

Georgia county jails extract at even higher rates: Glynn County jail operates at a 69% commission rate and collects more than $300,000 annually from phone and tablet fees alone—from a facility averaging just 411 people. Chatham County operates at 52%, and Liberty County at 50%.

Cost to Families

A Georgia family maintaining regular contact with a loved one in state prison faces an estimated monthly cost of $115–$135, broken down as follows:
– Daily phone calls (25-minute maximum): $45/month
– Email stamps (3/day at bulk rate): $18/month
– Money transfers (2x/month at $100 each): $10/month
– Video calls (2x/week): $32/month
– Music/entertainment: $10–$30/month

The money transfer fee structure is regressive by design: a family sending $20 pays a 17.5% surcharge ($3.50 fee), while a family sending $200 pays 3.25% ($6.50 fee). The poorest families pay the highest effective rates.

Nationally, family spending on prison communications can reach $500/month in extreme cases. The prison money transfer industry alone generated $99.2 million in revenue in 2017.

Cost of the Alternative: Free Calls

New York State estimated an annual cost of $9 million to make prison calls free and reported a 45% increase in phone minutes in the first month. New York City’s free jail call policy saves families an estimated $10 million per year. When Massachusetts made calls free—the first state to include local jails—call volume more than doubled, demonstrating that high costs were suppressing family contact.

Federal Regulatory Impact

The FCC’s July 2024 rate caps would have saved families approximately $500 million annually nationwide and projected nearly 2 billion additional call minutes per year. The October 2025 reversal—raising caps by 83%—costs families an estimated additional $215 million per year compared to the 2024 rules. Only three states (Florida, Kentucky, and Oklahoma) had rates above the new 2025 caps at the time of adoption, meaning most facilities were already compliant with the lower 2024 rules.

Key Takeaway: Georgia collects over $8 million annually in kickback revenue from families while the free-call alternative costs New York just $9 million per year for a larger system.

Key Findings

A Duopoly Controls the Market

Securus Technologies and ViaPath Technologies control approximately 80% of the U.S. prison communications market. The prison telecom market is “not a functioning market in any meaningful economic sense” but rather “a system of state-granted monopolies in which a correctional facility awards a single company the exclusive right to provide communication services to its entire incarcerated population.” ICSolutions, the distant third player, is owned by Keefe Group (H.I.G. Capital)—the same private equity firm that dominates prison commissary supply—illustrating the interlocking nature of the prison extraction economy.

Private Equity Debt Drove Prices Up—and Securus to Near-Collapse

Platinum Equity loaded Securus/Aventiv with $1.3 billion in debt to finance its 2017 leveraged buyout. The company needed to remain “unjustly and unsustainably profitable” to service that debt. By March 2024, Aventiv’s bonds crashed to 47 cents on the dollar. The company effectively defaulted in April 2024, missed its December 2024 sale deadline, and narrowly avoided Chapter 11 bankruptcy through an April 2025 distressed debt-for-equity exchange in which creditors took ownership. A $360 million loan was issued as part of the restructuring. ViaPath faces its own crisis, with $1.4 billion in debt coming due starting in 2025.

Between 2012 and 2018, Securus acquired approximately 12 companies—spanning videoconferencing, GPS monitoring, biometrics, messaging, and music streaming—creating a vertically integrated platform controlling every paid interaction an incarcerated person has with the outside world.

The Commission System Creates Perverse Incentives

Nationwide commission/kickback revenue totaled approximately $460 million annually prior to the FCC’s 2024 ban. Commission rates range from zero to as high as 94%, with the national average historically above 40%. Georgia’s county jails demonstrate the extremes: Glynn County at 69%, Chatham County at 52%, Liberty County at 50%. Michigan required providers to pay an $11 million per year “Special Equipment Fund”—an effective commission rate of 57%—while formally refusing “commissions.”

The FCC Rate Cap Reversal

The FCC’s July 2024 rules would have reduced a 15-minute call from a large jail from $11.35 to $0.90. The October 2025 interim rules raised large prison rates from $0.06 to $0.11/minute—an 83% increase—and added a $0.02/minute “facility cost recovery” fee, effectively a backdoor restoration of the banned commission system. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez dissented, stating the FCC was “shielding a broken system that inflates costs and rewards kickbacks.”

Unregulated Tablet Services Are the Next Extraction Frontier

E-messaging is explicitly excluded from FCC regulation under the Martha Wright-Reed Act. JPay charges $0.20–$0.35 per email stamp, with additional stamps required for photo attachments and videograms. Music costs $0.99–$9.99 per song and up to $46 per album (compared to Spotify’s $10/month for unlimited streaming). GTL charged $24.99/month for a games subscription. As phone and video rates are capped, companies are shifting revenue extraction toward these unregulated services.

Women and Children Bear the Cost

One in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt to stay connected. 87% of the financial burden is carried by women, disproportionately women of color. 2.7 million children in the United States have an incarcerated parent. Families report forgoing food, medical care, and utility payments to maintain contact.

County Jails Punish the Legally Innocent

Three out of four people held in local jails have not been convicted—they are legally innocent, awaiting trial. Yet Georgia county jails charge dramatically more than state prisons: Chatham County charges $8 for a 20-minute video call ($0.40/minute), Glynn County charges $0.18/minute for local calls (3x the state prison rate), and Liberty County charges close to $1 per text message for tweet-length content.

Contraband Phones as Evidence of Market Failure

Georgia seized 15,500+ contraband cell phones in 2024. People in prison risk harsh disciplinary consequences to obtain phones because authorized communications are expensive, restrictive (25-minute limits, monitored, limited hours), and controlled by a monopoly provider. Attorney General Chris Carr has led coalitions of 23–31 state attorneys general advocating for federal cell phone jamming authority—which would entrench the monopoly provider’s market position while maintaining the system that generates $8+ million in annual kickback revenue.

Compounding Extraction Across the Prison Economy

GPS’s commissary investigation documented markup rates of 50–300% on basic necessities. This communications research documents markup rates of 1,000%+ over comparable consumer telecommunications costs. The same private equity firms control multiple extraction points: Platinum Equity owns Aventiv/Securus/JPay (communications); H.I.G. Capital owns both Keefe Group (commissary) and ICSolutions (communications); American Securities owns ViaPath/GTL (communications).

Key Takeaway: Two private equity-backed corporations exploit state-granted monopolies to extract $1.4 billion annually from incarcerated people and their families, with Georgia ranking third nationally in kickback revenue while the state takes no action to reform the system.

Comparable States

Six states and New York City have eliminated prison phone charges, providing direct models for Georgia:

Other state actions:
– Missouri enacted a law in August 2025 capping phone rates at $0.12/minute in correctional centers
– Maryland’s proposal to make prison calls free did not pass
– Florida: Governor DeSantis vetoed a $1 million pilot program in 2023 that would have provided one free 15-minute call per month

Georgia’s position: Georgia has taken no legislative action to provide free calls or further reduce rates, despite ranking third nationally in kickback revenue. No bills have advanced in the Georgia General Assembly. The Georgia Public Service Commission last acted in 2017, when it limited in-state non-local call charges and commission amounts. Georgia had a 46% commission rate as of 2000 data.

The nonprofit model: Ameelio, the first nonprofit prison communications provider, charges correctional agencies rather than families and provides free voice calls, video calls, e-messaging, and letters. Iowa adopted Ameelio’s “Connect” platform across all nine state prisons. Even Securus CEO Tom Gores acknowledged: “I think this industry really should be led probably not by private folks… but the nonprofit business, honestly.”

Key Takeaway: Six states have demonstrated that free prison calls are viable and produce dramatic increases in family contact, while Georgia—ranked third nationally in kickback revenue—has taken no legislative action.

Policy Recommendations

1. Eliminate Phone Charges in Georgia State Prisons

Action: Introduce legislation requiring the Georgia Department of Corrections to provide free phone calls to all people in state custody, following the models of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

Fiscal note: New York’s free-call policy costs an estimated $9 million annually for a larger system. Georgia’s cost would likely be lower. The state currently collects $8,062,200.60 in annual kickback revenue—meaning the net new cost to the state would be modest, and that cost would be offset by the public safety benefits of maintained family contact.

2. Cap County Jail Communication Rates

Action: Introduce legislation setting maximum per-minute rates and commission percentages for all Georgia county jails. Current county rates—$0.18/minute in Glynn County, $8 for a 20-minute video call in Chatham County, nearly $1 per text message in Liberty County—disproportionately burden legally innocent pretrial detainees. Three out of four people in local jails have not been convicted.

3. Ban Commission Kickbacks Statewide

Action: Prohibit all commission/kickback arrangements between correctional facilities and telecommunications providers in Georgia, at both the state and county level. Commission rates as high as 69% create perverse incentives that drive up costs for families while generating revenue for facilities.

4. Regulate E-Messaging and Tablet Services at the State Level

Action: Because the FCC explicitly excluded e-messaging from federal rate regulation, Georgia must act at the state level to cap per-message rates and establish transparency requirements for all tablet-based services, including music, entertainment, and educational content pricing.

5. Require Full Contract Transparency

Action: Mandate public disclosure of all correctional facility telecommunications contracts—state and county—including commission rates, total annual revenue, fee schedules, and contract terms. Require the Georgia Department of Corrections to publish an annual report on total communications revenue extracted from families.

6. Explore the Nonprofit Provider Model

Action: Direct the Georgia Department of Corrections to issue a Request for Information (RFI) from nonprofit communications providers, including Ameelio, to evaluate the feasibility and cost of transitioning to a model that charges the state rather than families. Iowa’s statewide deployment across nine prisons provides an operational template.

7. Conduct a Legislative Study on Total Extraction Costs

Action: Commission a legislative study calculating the total annual financial extraction from Georgia’s incarcerated population and their families across all revenue streams: communications, commissary (50–300% markups documented by GPS), medical co-pays, money transfers, and reentry costs. This figure has never been comprehensively reported for Georgia.

8. Renegotiate the Securus/Aventiv Contract

Action: Aventiv’s near-bankruptcy, ownership transfer to creditors, and pending FCC regulatory approval of the ownership change create a window for Georgia to renegotiate its contract on terms more favorable to families. The General Assembly should direct GDC to use this transition period to secure lower rates, eliminate commissions, and explore alternative providers.

Key Takeaway: Georgia legislators have multiple actionable pathways—from eliminating phone charges to banning kickbacks to exploring nonprofit providers—each supported by successful models in other states.

Read the Source Document

Read the full GPS Investigative Research Brief: Prison Communications & Financial Exploitation: The Extraction Economy Behind Bars (February 2026) →

This legislator explainer is based on GPS’s comprehensive investigative research documenting the prison communications extraction economy, including corporate ownership structures, Georgia-specific contract data, the federal regulatory timeline, and comparable state models.

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