Financial Investigation
Follow the Money: Georgia Prison MAS Vendors, Contracts & Financial Conflicts
This GPS research document traces the financial relationships between Managed Access System (MAS) vendors, prison telecom companies, GDC officials, and political actors in Georgia's prison cell phone crackdown. It reveals that Securus Technologies simultaneously profits from blocking contraband phones and holding the exclusive paid phone services contract, while GDC collects over $8 million/year in kickbacks at a 59.6% commission rate — among the highest in the nation. The document exposes a shadowy 2-person vendor (Hawks Ear Communications) with no track record that holds 3 Georgia prison contracts, details Securus's $1.3 billion debt crisis threatening service continuity, and documents how the ~$50 million contraband technology budget has coincided with quadrupled prison homicides rather than improved safety.
All Data Points
52 verified data points extracted from primary sources.
Georgia contraband technology budget approximately $50 million Statistic
Georgia's contraband technology budget is approximately $50 million, funding three MAS vendors (Trace-Tek/ShawnTech, CellBlox/Securus, Hawks Ear).
$50M
GDC receives $8+ million/year in Securus kickbacks Statistic
GDC receives $8+ million per year in kickbacks from Securus Technologies at a 59.6% commission rate on prison phone services gross revenue.
$8M
Prison homicides quadrupled amid phone crackdown Finding
The state spends $50 million to block phones, collects $8 million/year in kickbacks, and prison homicides have quadrupled.
Securus operates MAS at 4 Georgia prisons AND holds exclusive phone contract Finding
Securus Technologies operates MAS (Managed Access Systems) at 4 Georgia prisons while also holding the exclusive contract to provide paid phone services, creating a dual-profit conflict of interest.
Tom Gores/Platinum Equity acquired Securus for $1.6 billion in 2017 Case detail
Tom Gores, billionaire and Detroit Pistons owner, owns Platinum Equity which owns Aventiv Technologies which owns Securus Technologies. Securus was acquired in 2017 for $1.6 billion.
Securus annual revenue approximately $700 million Statistic
Securus Technologies reports approximately $700 million in annual revenue with a 51% gross profit margin.
$700M
Securus 51% gross profit margin Statistic
Securus Technologies operates at a 51% gross profit margin.
51%
Securus total investment approximately $840 million Statistic
Securus Technologies' total investment is approximately $840 million.
$840M
Securus serves 3,400+ facilities and 1.2 million incarcerated individuals Statistic
Securus Technologies serves 3,400+ correctional facilities and 1.2 million incarcerated individuals nationally.
3,400 facilities vs. incarcerated individuals served
Securus MAS investment exceeds $40 million Statistic
Securus Technologies has invested $40+ million in Managed Access System technology.
$40M
Securus current debt $1.3 billion, effectively defaulted Statistic
Securus Technologies carries $1.3 billion in debt, has effectively defaulted, with debt trading at 8 cents on the dollar.
$1.3B
Securus debt trading at 8 cents on the dollar Statistic
Securus Technologies' debt is trading at 8 cents on the dollar, indicating severe financial distress.
$8.00
Gores forced to resign from LACMA board due to prison profiteering pressure Case detail
Tom Gores was forced to resign from the LACMA board due to activist pressure related to prison profiteering. He also faced NBA activist pressure and was named in a class-action lawsuit. A PA pension fund denied a $150 million investment.
PA pension fund denied $150M investment in Platinum Equity Case detail
A Pennsylvania pension fund denied a $150 million investment in Platinum Equity due to concerns over prison profiteering through Securus Technologies.
Georgia Securus commission rate 59.6% of gross revenue Statistic
The Georgia-Securus contract specifies a commission rate of 59.6% of gross revenue paid to GDC, among the highest in the nation (national average ~43%).
59.6% vs. national average commission rate
Securus minimum monthly guarantee $325,000 Statistic
The Georgia-Securus contract included a minimum monthly guarantee of $325,000 per month paid to GDC.
$325,000
Securus one-time signing bonus $4 million to GDC Statistic
The Georgia-Securus contract included a one-time signing bonus of $4,000,000 paid to GDC.
$4.0M
2019 annual Securus kickback to GDC: $8,062,200.60 Statistic
In 2019, GDC received $8,062,200.60 in annual kickbacks (commissions) from Securus Technologies.
$8.1M
2022 Securus total commissions to GDC: $7.04 million Statistic
In 2022, Securus paid GDC total commissions of $7.04 million.
$7.0M
Georgia Securus call rates Statistic
Securus call rates in Georgia prisons: local $0.13/min, in-state $0.16/min, interstate $0.21/min. A 15-minute in-state call costs $2.10-$2.40.
$0.16
Securus Forensics Lab cost $68,000/month ($816,000/year) Statistic
The Securus contract included a Forensics Lab at $68,000/month ($816,000/year) staffed with 2 Intake Specialists, 3 Digital Forensics Technicians, 6 Intelligence Analysts, 1 MAS Intelligence Analyst, and 1 Intelligence Operations Program Manager.
$816,000
Securus contract included free surveillance tools Policy
The Georgia-Securus contract included at no additional cost: Investigator Pro (voice biometrics), Location Based Services (real-time tracking), THREADS (data analysis), ICER (inter-facility detection), and MAS at Autry State Prison.
865 tablet complaints in 6 months, 73% unresolved Statistic
Securus-provided tablets to Georgia prisoners generated 865 complaints from March to September 2023, with 73% unresolved. GDC canceled the tablet program in December 2023.
865 complaints vs. percent unresolved
GDC-Securus settlement includes nondisparagement clause Legal fact
The settlement from GDC's cancellation of Securus tablets included a nondisparagement clause — GDC cannot publicly criticize Securus.
S&P downgraded Securus to CCC- in October 2023 Case detail
S&P downgraded Securus/Aventiv to CCC- in October 2023. Moody's rated junk in November 2023. A distressed debt exchange followed in December 2023. A SPAC deal also failed.
Securus bankruptcy risk to Georgia services Data gap
If Securus goes bankrupt, it poses a risk to Georgia's MAS systems and phone services that depend on the company. The company's $1.3 billion debt and junk credit rating raise serious continuity concerns.
ShawnTech claims 86% of all FCC CIS licenses nationally Statistic
ShawnTech claims to hold 86% of all FCC CIS (Contraband Interdiction System) licenses nationally. The company has MBE/DBE certifications in 15+ states.
86%
ShawnTech C-DOS permanently disables phones without warrants Legal fact
ShawnTech's C-DOS system permanently disables phones 'without going through the warrant process.' The FCC framework requires DCFOs to submit qualifying requests but no warrant is needed. Over 4,000 devices have been permanently disabled.
ShawnTech profits from both blocking and providing phone services Finding
ShawnTech/Trace-Tek also provides inmate phone systems, kiosks, video visitation, and tablets — profiting from both blocking contraband phones AND providing paid communication services.
Hawks Ear Communications is a 2-person operation with no physical office Case detail
Hawks Ear Communications is a 2-person operation with no physical office. Roger Banks (Fort Lauderdale) is Manager and also runs a windows and door company. Myles Lu (Vancouver BC) is the technical contact at Star Solutions International. The Fort L…
Hawks Ear has no website, track record, or deployed product Finding
Hawks Ear Communications has no website, no track record, and no deployed product, yet holds 3 Georgia prison contracts at Hancock SP, Phillips SP, and Valdosta SP.
Hawks Ear FCC experimental license had equipment listed as 'TBD' Case detail
Hawks Ear Communications' FCC experimental license tested near Hancock SP (Sparta GA) but equipment was listed as 'TBD' and the license was never granted. CIS Phase One certification was not obtained until March 2025.
Hawks Ear registered in Georgia March 2022, no procurement records found Data gap
Hawks Ear Communications registered in Georgia in March 2022. No procurement records were found for how the contracts at Hancock SP, Phillips SP, and Valdosta SP were awarded.
Circular kickback flow in Georgia prison phone system Finding
The Georgia prison phone system operates a circular financial flow: Families pay Securus for calls, Securus keeps 40.4%, GDC gets 59.6% as commission, GDC also pays Securus for MAS/forensics services, Securus blocks contraband phones forcing inmates…
Tom Gores approximately $58,100 in federal donations Statistic
Tom Gores made approximately $58,100 in federal political donations, primarily to Democratic candidates. No Georgia-specific donations were found.
$58,100
AG Chris Carr running for governor 2026, leading 23-state jamming coalition Case detail
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is running for governor in 2026 and is leading a 23-state coalition advocating for FCC approval of cell phone jamming in prisons. If jamming is approved, it would eliminate the need for private MAS vendors entirel…
HRDC v. Securus and ViaPath RICO lawsuit filed 2020 Legal fact
HRDC v. Securus and ViaPath was filed in 2020 in Maryland, alleging price-fixing (Pay Now $14.99/15min, Text2Connect $9.99/10min), kickback fraud, and RICO enterprise. The Fourth Circuit reversed the RICO dismissal in May 2023, and the case is proce…
Securus Location Based Services tracked judges without warrants Case detail
Securus Location Based Services provides real-time tracking of any cell phone in the country without warrant verification. A Missouri sheriff illegally tracked judges using this capability. ACLU documented that Securus obtains real-time location dat…
4% Location Validation Fee charged on ALL prison phone bills Statistic
A 4% Location Validation Fee is charged on ALL prison phone bills regardless of whether location tracking is actually used.
4%
C-DOS phone destruction legally untested Data gap
ShawnTech C-DOS permanently disables phones without warrants. No lawsuits have yet challenged this practice — it is legally untested. Potential legal issues include property rights (phones may be stolen, belonging to non-inmates), Hudson v. Palmer a…
360+ staff arrested for smuggling since 2018 Statistic
Over 360 staff have been arrested for smuggling contraband into Georgia prisons since 2018. MAS systems whitelist staff phones but also detect unauthorized staff phones in housing units.
360 staff arrested (minimum)
One CO received $150,000 for smuggling 150 phones Case detail
One correctional officer received $150,000 for smuggling 150 phones into a Georgia prison.
MAS vendors have financial incentive not to report staff corruption Finding
MAS vendors have a financial incentive NOT to report staff corruption because contraband phones drive demand for both MAS systems and paid phone services. No evidence was found that MAS data has been used for staff accountability.
No evidence MAS data used for staff accountability Data gap
No evidence was found that MAS (Managed Access System) data has been used for staff accountability, despite the systems' capability to detect unauthorized staff phones in housing units.
New comprehensive RFP posted December 6, 2025 Policy
Georgia posted a comprehensive RFP (Solicitation 46700-GDC0001179) on December 6, 2025, for offender communications (phones, tablets, video, trust accounts) with a deadline of February 20, 2026. NASPO eligible vendors include ViaPath, Securus, ATG, …
Contraband phone prices dropped when tablets were available Trend
When tablets were available to Georgia prisoners (2015-2017), contraband phone prices dropped from $1,200-$1,500 to $200-$500. When the tablet program collapsed (2021-2023), combined with MAS expansion, inmates had no communication access and violen…
Securus lobbied aggressively against FCC rate regulation Finding
Securus lobbied aggressively in 2015 to block FCC regulation, opposed every FCC rate cap, and fought free-calling legislation in every state.
ShawnTech FCC CIS certification March 2024 Case detail
Trace-Tek LLC received FCC CIS (Contraband Interdiction System) certification in March 2024.
ACLU documented Securus real-time location tracking capability Quote
ACLU documented that Securus obtains real-time location data for 'virtually any individual in the country' through its Location Based Services capability.
Communication access collapse and violence explosion 2021-2023 Finding
When the tablet program collapsed (2021-2023), combined with MAS expansion, inmates had NO communication access. Violence exploded during this period.
Securus price-fixing allegations: Pay Now $14.99/15min Statistic
The HRDC v. Securus RICO lawsuit alleges price-fixing with Pay Now rates at $14.99 for 15 minutes and Text2Connect at $9.99 for 10 minutes.
$14.99 vs. dollars per 10-minute Text2Connect
If jamming approved it eliminates need for private MAS vendors Finding
If the FCC approves cell phone jamming in prisons, it would eliminate the need for private MAS vendors entirely, potentially rendering the entire MAS vendor ecosystem obsolete.
Sources
1 cited sources backing this research.
Primary
Gps original
Follow the Money: Georgia Prison MAS System
Key Entities
Organizations, people, facilities, and other named entities referenced in this research.
ACLU
[organization]
Autry State Prison
[facility]
Aventiv Technologies
[organization]
Chris Carr
[person]
Federal Communications Commission
[organization]
GDC
[organization]
Georgia Offender Communications RFP
[legislation]
Hancock State Prison
[facility]
Hawks Ear Communications
[organization]
HRDC v. Securus and ViaPath
[case]
Hudson v. Palmer
[case]
Human Rights Defense Center
[organization]
Lance Fancher
[person]
Myles Lu
[person]
Phillips State Prison
[facility]
Platinum Equity
[organization]
Roger Banks
[person]
Securus Technologies
[organization]
ShawnTech/Trace-Tek
[organization]
Star Solutions International
[organization]
The Concept Law Group
[organization]
Tom Gores
[person]
ViaPath Technologies
[organization]
Related Topics
Research topics that draw on data from this collection.
Budget & Spending
Georgia's Department of Corrections operates a system costing nearly $1.8 billion annually — a figure that has grown dramatically while conditions have deteriorated, violence has surged, and accountability mechanisms have remained largely absent. Between January and May 2025 alone, the Georgia General Assembly approved approximately $634 million in new corrections spending, the largest single infusion in state history, with little public transparency about how those funds will be tracked or evaluated. A forensic examination of GDC's budget trends reveals a system that spends aggressively on incarceration infrastructure while systematically underinvesting in staffing, healthcare, rehabilitation, and the conditions that would actually reduce recidivism and save lives.
2,467 data points
Communications & Technology
Georgia's prison communications system is a $1.4 billion national extraction machine in which monopoly vendors, state kickback arrangements, and a $50 million failed contraband technology program converge to financially devastate incarcerated people and their families while doing little to improve safety. The Georgia Department of Corrections collected more than $8 million per year in Securus commission kickbacks — ranking third nationally — even as 12,483 contraband phones were confiscated between 2021 and 2023, exposing the fundamental failure of the monitor-and-block model. This system operates as a hidden tax on the poorest families, who already spend $5.6 billion annually nationwide on commissary, phone calls, and basic necessities at markups reaching 600% above retail.
1,786 data points
Mortality & Deaths in Custody
Georgia's prison system recorded 333 total deaths in custody in 2024 — the deadliest year in state history — yet the Georgia Department of Corrections officially acknowledged only 66 homicides, while independent investigators and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution documented at least 100. Deaths in Georgia prisons have surged 47% since 2019, driven by unchecked violence, a staffing collapse, rampant drug trafficking, and healthcare failures that courts have repeatedly found unconstitutional — yet the state's accountability infrastructure remains so broken that no authoritative, verified count of how many people die behind its walls has ever been produced.
1,900 data points
Oversight & Accountability
Georgia's prison oversight architecture has failed at every level — legislative, judicial, executive, and administrative — producing a system where 142 documented homicides, a 50% staffing vacancy rate, and $634 million in emergency spending coexist with no meaningful accountability for the officials responsible. The Georgia Department of Corrections operates with near-total opacity, manipulates its own mortality data, collects millions in kickbacks from vendors it is supposed to regulate, and has twice required federal court intervention — first in 1972 and again in 2024 — because internal oversight mechanisms do not function. What exists in Georgia is not a flawed oversight system; it is the systematic absence of one.
2,779 data points
Policy & Advocacy
Georgia's prison system consumes nearly $1.8 billion in annual state funding while producing measurable failures across every metric of public safety, human dignity, and fiscal responsibility — yet Georgia's policy responses have largely reinforced spending on incarceration rather than alternatives. GPS's synthesis of 29 research collections identifies a convergent evidence base for structural reform: decarceration, sentencing revision, post-conviction relief, communications deregulation, and community supervision overhaul — each with documented cost savings and recidivism-reduction outcomes that Georgia's current political leadership has largely declined to act upon.
2,772 data points
Racial Disparities
Racial disparities permeate every layer of Georgia's criminal justice system, from initial arrest through probation, incarceration, and the hidden financial costs borne by families. Black Georgians are incarcerated at 2.7 times the rate of white Georgians, are at least twice as likely to serve probation, and in some counties face an 8-to-1 disparity in probation supervision — all within a state that already imprisons its residents at a rate of 881 per 100,000, higher than any founding NATO nation. These disparities are not statistical abstractions: they represent generational wealth extraction, family destabilization, and the compounding of historical injustices that stretch from the convict leasing era to today's commissary markups and prison phone commissions.
1,568 data points
Violence & Safety
Georgia's prison system is in the grip of a violence crisis that federal investigators, independent journalists, and whistleblowers have documented as among the worst in the United States — a constitutional emergency rooted in catastrophic understaffing, unchecked contraband, gang proliferation, and systemic failures of oversight. Between 2018 and 2023, at least 142 people were killed in GDC custody; in 2024 alone, the Georgia Department of Corrections acknowledged 66 homicides while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed at least 100 and Georgia Prisoners' Speak tracked 330 total deaths — making it the deadliest year in state history. The evidence points not to isolated incidents but to a system-wide collapse of the state's constitutional obligation to protect the people it incarcerates.
1,918 data points