NEW BOOK! I think I forgot to tell everyone that I wrote a book. It’s the longest thread about the prison industry I’ve ever written, and it’s out this week. I’m honored by the response so far. Please get a copy!
“Many know that corporate interests corrupt the contemporary American prison system, but Bianca Tylek and Worth Rises take an extra step to detail exactly how these interests manifest. With powerful narratives and meticulous analysis, The Prison Industry is an essential read…
for anyone committed to challenging how American prisons operate and dismantling the industry of oppression that sustains them.”
— @dwaynebetts, founder of Freedom Reads, author of Felon: Poems, and MacArthur “Genius” Awardee
Let's talk about audacity today, specifically the audacity of the nation's largest private prison firm GEO Group, which is preparing to collect a windfall from Trump's election. From wild exec statements to indefensible legal stances, GEO's audacity has reached new levels. 🧵
Some context first: GEO Group emerged in the 1980s, when it got its first immigration detention contract. Since it has grown into a global corporation with over $2.4 billion in revenues annually, more than half of which comes from federal contracts, primarily with ICE.
When the public soured on private prisons, GEO Group began heavily investing in expanding its business, doubling down on immigration. As of 2023, ICE makes up 43% of its revenues, up from 20% just five years earlier. It now has contracts to monitor, detain, and deport immigrants.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS. Local media ran a story this week that is plainly irresponsible and harmful copaganda, parroting claims from the Bristol Country Sheriff that free calls have increased crime in his jail. Here's why that's ridiculous. 🧵 turnto10.com/i-team/inmate-…
For context, this week marks the first anniversary of No Cost Calls implementation in Massachusetts, a legislative effort that made all calls across the state's prisons and jails free. Backed by a strong community coalition, it's been wildly successful. wgbh.org/news/local/202…
Now, the headline at issue claims that jail crime (measured in criminal charges) is up by 50% this year due to free calls. They want you to ignore that we're talking about just 35 charges in a facility that holds over 650 people and focus on the 50% because that seems dramatic.
Wellpath is the 3rd correctional healthcare provider to file for bankruptcy or liquidate in the last 2 years. It'll survive, but we need to be unpack this story. For-profit prison healthcare providers have been pocketing billions while, quite literally, killing people. THREAD
We're still reading through the filings, which are quickly stacking up. But the multitude of reasons they are in this situation are becoming clear. Almost all of them are related to their inability, or unwillingness, to provide quality care, from staff retention to lawsuits.
Wellpath is blaming minimum wage hikes for their increased labor costs. This is interesting because there are likely very few healthcare positions that should be paid minimum wage in a prison, but it explains a lot about their staffing crisis and the resulting increase in costs.
There is something huge happening in the prison industry and no one appears to be paying attention: the correctional healthcare sector is collapsing. THREAD
WellPath is the next in a line of prison healthcare corporations facing financial troubles. Despite billions in revenue, they can’t seem to stay afloat. Preliminary reporting claims that it’s because of increased labor costs, but that’s not the real story. So what is it?
Prison healthcare providers are failing for 2 reasons: (1) medical malpractice is actually really expensive and is creating financial obligations bigger and faster than expected and (2) private equity owners are saddling them with unaffordable debt that require more cost cutting.
THREAD 🧵 This game-changing legislation just introduced in NYC has been a long time in the works and has the potential to revolutionize correctional telecom by reversing its invasive reach into our privacy and uprooting the underlying justification for its egregious prices.
This effort dates back to 2018, when we passed another first-of-its-kind bill in NYC that made all jail calls free and spurred a nationwide movement for free correctional communication. During the hearing, councilmembers began asking about the surveillance of jail calls.
A key concern emerged around the universal monitoring of jail calls: Was it fair that only people detained pretrial, many of whom simply couldn’t afford bail, were being surveilled, thus hindering their ability to participate in their own defense, and not those who were released?