Prison Communications & Financial Exploitation: The Extraction Economy Behind Bars

Georgia's prison communications system is a $1.4 billion national extraction economy concentrated in the hands of two companies—Securus Technologies and ViaPath Technologies—that together control 80 percent of the U.S. market and serve 1.1 million incarcerated people across 3,450 facilities. This research documents how Georgia families are systematically overcharged for basic contact with loved ones while the state government collects millions in kickback revenue that masks the true cost of the system.Georgia ranks third nationally in commission kickback revenue, collecting $8.06 million in fiscal year 2018-2019 from Securus and JPay (a Securus subsidiary). Families pay $0.06 per minute for phone calls, $0.20 to $0.35 per email stamp through JPay, and $3.50 to $6.50 per money transfer. A family maintaining regular weekly contact through combined phone, email, and transfers spends an estimated $115 to $135 monthly—expenses that force one in three families into debt. The financial burden falls disproportionately on women, who carry 87 percent of these costs. Meanwhile, Georgia county jails operate with vastly higher rates and commission structures, with some facilities like Glynn County charging 69 percent commission rates. The communications monopoly is reinforced through the NASPO master agreement, which Georgia joined alongside eight other states, limiting competition to just five vendors—four of them connected to private equity firms.The Securus parent company Aventiv Technologies, owned by billionaire Tom Gores's Platinum Equity, collapsed toward bankruptcy in 2024-2025 while desperately pushing tablet adoption and unregulated content sales to offset revenue losses from federal rate regulation. The company accumulated over $1.3 billion in debt through leveraged buyouts, with bond values crashing to 47 cents on the dollar as the Federal Communications Commission prepared its 2024 rate-cutting order. That order—voted unanimously on July 18, 2024—would have reduced call costs dramatically and eliminated all site commissions. Instead, the Republican-majority FCC reversed course in June 2025, then adopted weakened "interim" rules in October 2025 that raise Georgia's phone rates from $0.06 to $0.11 per minute while adding a $0.02 per minute "facility cost recovery" additive—a backdoor restoration of commission revenue that Worth Rises estimates will cost families an additional $215 million annually compared to the 2024 rules.Six states plus New York City have already implemented free prison calls, with Massachusetts and New York reporting call volumes more than doubled and no budget catastrophe. Connecticut, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Massachusetts eliminated charges entirely. Yet Georgia has taken no legislative action despite extracting millions in communications revenue. The nonprofit alternative—Ameelio, founded by Yale students and backed by Jack Dorsey and Eric Schmidt—operates in Iowa and Maine, charging corrections departments rather than families. Georgia's 159 counties operate under separate contracts with widely varying rates and commissions, creating a fragmented exploitation landscape. A systematic survey of county jail contracts has never been conducted. The total amount extracted from Georgia families across all communications services remains unknown, and how GDC allocates its $8 million-plus in annual commission revenue has never been publicly disclosed—questions that demand legislative and FOIA-based investigation.