

Serial's $2,500 Phone Bill and the Prison-Calling Racket - pje
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-17/serial-podcasts-2-500-phone-bill-and-the-prison-payhone-racket

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pigeonly
Great post. I know far too well the effects of “reverse competition” on the
families of incarcerated individuals. Not being able to call and tell your
daughter “Good Job” on her most recent report card, or discuss with your son
the consequences of your actions that led to incarceration, are just a few
moments that rarely occur due to exorbitant telephone rates for prisoner phone
calls. Bi-partisan research supports the fact that the more connected an
inmate is to his or her family, the less likely he or she will reoffend upon
return to society. While both sides of the political aisle get the key factors
to successful reentry, neither has until recently, been willing to tackle the
crux of the ‘disconnected from society’ issue. This is one of the reasons I
started Pigeonly - we saw a problem technology and a little bit of creative
thinking could help solve.

In Q4 alone our Telepigeon product has provided over 4.5MM low cost phone
minutes saving inmates and their family members over $750K in phone cost,
that’s real money we've been able to put back into people's pockets.

