
Show HN: Ameelio.org – Free Prison Communication Platform - jessehorne
https://ameelio.org/
======
jessehorne
Lead developer here. Ameelio is a non-profit that's building free technology
to transform corrections and criminal justice. We've recently launched
Letters, our first application that lets loved-ones of incarcerated
individuals send physical mail for free. Currently, the situation is that two
corporations own communication throughout the prisons and jails in the U.S
(Global Tel Link and Securus). They charge ridiculous amounts of money just so
that you can stay in contact with your loved-ones. We're hoping to change
that.

I actually discovered Ameelio last year through a Hacker News post
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21129557](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21129557))
that didn't gain much attention. Zo, the founder, had reached out looking for
support and contributors through a hiring post. When I read the post, I
decided to look more into the project. My first thought was just "Wow!". I
really vibed with the concept because it's something that hits really close to
home.

I've had friends and family that were incarcerated before so I know exactly
what it's like dealing with the struggles that come from that experience. When
someone is incarcerated, it's not just a punishment for them. It's an attack
on their families, as well. In my experience, poverty is oftentimes a direct
cause for incarceration. Mistakes are made and you get put into a situation, a
system, that doesn't value reformation, but instead looks to profit. To
communicate with a loved-one on the inside means spending money that you don't
have. If your family is struggling financially, it means that you're out of
luck. This shouldn't be the case.

I believe that a system focused on reformation would be much better for our
society than a system based on profit. Why should a corporation be able to
take control of communication between an incarcerated individual and their
loved-ones meahwhile charging high prices knowing that it's their only option?
Why have we allowed that to happen? Being a part of this project is my way of
stepping up and making sure we can deliver an alternative option for those
families that are struggling.

I've received amazing support from this community before and thanks to you
guys I've been able to focus my efforts on projects like this. Any and all
feedback is welcome. If you're interested in using our app then feel free to
check it out. It's free and we'll do all that we can to keep it that way.

~~~
flanbiscuit
"Currently, the situation is that two corporations own communication
throughout the prisons and jails in the U.S (JPay and Securus)."

Did you experience any issues trying to get into this space? Any push back
from the companies mentioned or from any of the state prison systems?

What a great idea! That testimonial from the blind person on your home page is
very moving.

~~~
jessehorne
First I'd like to thank you for the comment. You made me realize a mistake I
made in mentioning JPay and Securus when I meant to say Global Tel Link and
Securus.

As far as pushback from other companies, we haven't received any so far.
There's nothing they can really do besides make their services more appealing.
Currently, with Letters (our first app), it allows users to sign up, add their
contacts (inmates), and then type out a letter and also are given the option
to attach an image. Then we use a third party service, Lob, to print off the
letter and send it. Given that we're just working with physical mail, there's
absolutely nothing they can do to stop us.

One type of pushback we _can_ receive is from facilities themselves. One
facility returned one of our letters and said that you can't have anything in
the letter that could be some form of encrypted message or symbol. In our
case, that happened to be the bar code used by the third party service to
manage their letters.

In the future, we'd like to also offer services like free video
chat/messaging. In my opinion, we're not far from being able to offer those
kinds of services. I can definitely imagine some sort of pushback happening in
that space, but what kind specifically is TBD. I'm excited though, because if
we can get to that point, we'll be literally transforming the system.

~~~
grahamburger
Honest question, because I have no idea how this all works: if people can just
send letters for the cost of a stamp then why do they use Global Tel Link or
Securus?

Really great thing you're doing here, I hope it all works out.

~~~
gavinray
If you think the letter prices are bad, try:

\- $3.15/15 mins for a domestic phone call

\- $15/20 mins video call/teleconference if your jail/prison has them and
you/someone else are willing to fork out that much (You may be there a while
and so have to stretch whatever money you have left as far as possible)

\- I don't even want to know how much for an international call

\- $1 for a single pack of ramen

\- $5 for a 5oz bag of freeze-dried coffee

And even if you have the money, you'd better hope someone picks up when you
get your phonecall and/or that you know people's addresses or phone-numbers
offhand.

US Justice system is a nightmare.

Gotta love JPay, Bob Barker, and Aramark.

~~~
syshum
>US Justice system is a nightmare.

I would stop calling it a justice system, we have a legal system for which any
"justice" is by pure coincidence

------
gabesaruhashi
My name is Gabe and I am one of the co-founders of Ameelio. Though we only
launched 4 weeks ago, we have over 1,250 users that collectively sent >3,000
letters across the entire country.

While it’s free for us to videoconference on Zoom and Facetime during
quarantine, it can cost up to $25 to make a 15-minute phone call to an
incarcerated person.

Some of you might be thinking: “Is it just a letter mailing service?” Though
for many stamps might not seem expensive, costs add up. Many of the families
lost their jobs during the crisis. One in three families with incarcerated
loved ones is forced into debt by the cost of visits and exorbitantly priced
calls.

In the past weeks, we’ve learned first-hand from our users about the
challenges of staying connected.

* Carol is completely blind and finds it too difficult to send physical mail but has now been able to connect with her incarcerated nephew using Ameelio

* Ellie is stuck in Norway and mail would normally take weeks to send to her incarcerated husband Kasey who is in the US, but with Ameelio she can send mail in 4-6 business days

* Nikki explained to us it is much more meaningful to “read and hold” a letter “close to them” than to send a text message or scanned letter - her husband calls Ameelio letters “little treasures”

* Samantha shared with us that she cannot afford stamps to talk to her husband

Our vision is to keep reconnecting those that are impacted by incarceration
through free technology.

~~~
Kronopath
How does your company handle the costs of mailing or delivering the letters?

~~~
Zoorchingwa
My name is Zo, I'm one of the co-founders of Ameelio. We are completely self-
funded at the moment, so we need all the help we can get! We were recently
accepted into one of Mozilla's accelerators, so this will provide us some
additional funding. As a 501c3 we're eligible to receive grants and donations,
so we're furiously applying to grants and reaching out to foundations. 34% of
families with a loved one in prison fall into debt trying to pay for phone
calls and visits alone ([https://bit.ly/2YrmyPV](https://bit.ly/2YrmyPV)), so
we're committed to keeping our services 100% free.

~~~
huntermeyer
Are you looking for a contributor? I would be happy to volunteer my time. I'm
a software developer and am pumped about your mission.

~~~
jessehorne
We'd love to have some help with development. Please reach out to us.
team@ameelio.org

~~~
kyawzazaw
My college (Macalester) will definitely have some cs majors willing to
volunteer. I suppose you can have them work on some minor/nonurgent tasks. Is
this something you'd be open to?

~~~
gabesaruhashi
For sure! Shoot us a message at team@ameelio.org We really appreciate your
help :)

-Gabe

------
hackermailman
There is already a similar service but it costs (very little) money called
jmail.cc that I've been using that prints out letters and photos and mail them
for you.

As an ex US federal prisoner (long story, teenager, petty financial hacking
crime, extradited from a foreign country years ago) I am intimately aware of
the terribad state of Jpay and corrlinks and all the other overpriced
communciations methods for prisoners. What I do now is whenever I want to buy
a new technical book I usually send it to a random prisoner not incarcerated
for something heinous and do it with them via letters, it's good motivation
because once a guy in jail for cheque kiting absolutely slayed a vector
calculus book I was trying to do and I had to pick up the pace in order to
keep up with him.

HN has their list of 'request for startups' and one of them is employ over 1
million ppl and I've always thought that the perfect situation for this is
prisoners if you can somehow navigate the political arena to make it happen.
There's just tons of people there willing to work and do anything to improve
their situation, as long as you aren't Ikea maximum profiteering off convicts
and help them as much as you help yourself everything should be cool.

~~~
jessehorne
I've seriously enjoyed reading your comments. Would love to get in touch
sometime and discuss some ideas. I think the book idea you do is awesome. My
email is in my profile. Please reach out if you see this!

------
kruzerkc
Hi I'm Kiran, the finance manager for Ameelio. We are 100% committed to
keeping our tools free for users - they're some of the most vulnerable in
society and it is a tragedy that they are getting fleeced by predatory
companies.

As our founder said, we're completely self-funded and all volunteers right
now. That's to say - we really need $$ to keep sending letters. If you have
spare resources during these times, we would really appreciate it if you could
help us out and donate! Here's a link:
[https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/ameelio/general](https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/ameelio/general)

~~~
odensc
> We are 100% committed to keeping our tools free for users

> Website: "All our users can send unlimited free letters"

But then in your landing page screenshot:

> To celebrate Ameelio's launch, you have unlimited letters! As our community
> grows, you'll have access to 4 free letters a month.

So which one is it? To say it's a "free communication platform" with
"unlimited free letters" but then to limit it to 4 letters/mo as your
"community grows" is disingenuous.

~~~
jessehorne
To be honest the 4 letter cap comment is just in case we run out of funding
and is subject to change depending on the situation. This isn't some free
trial exploit. Nothing we do is disingenuous. We are 100% committed to keeping
our tools free for users. I know the world is filled with businessmen trying
to take your money, but that's not us. But thank you very much for pointing
this out. We need to make sure we're more clear in the future.

~~~
odensc
That's good to hear. I think if you made it clear that the level of service
you can provide is proportional to the funding you receive, it would both fix
this misunderstanding and serve as an incentive for people to donate.

------
toomuchtodo
This project makes my heart so full. Thanks for your team‘s hard work,
meaningful and necessary work.

Y’all need to apply for YC’s non profit program (edit: I see you’re already in
Mozilla’s accelerator, equally good!). I hope you can scale up to audio and
videoconferencing with more resources and backing (donated compute, open
source tooling like Jitsi Meet or similar) and chip away at the for profits in
the space taking advantage of the families and loved ones of the incarcerated.

~~~
gabesaruhashi
Thank you so much for your support! This is totally what we envision the next
steps to be. Today we had a meeting with Rep. Josh Elliot who's pushing for
the free phone call bill here in CT to talk exactly about that.

And thanks for the advice! We'll try to apply for YC's next batch :)

------
phendrenad2
It's sad that as a society we've allowed those who are serving their time to
be exploited, but this is a good way to fight back, and hopefully make
exploitation of the imprisoned a less lucrative market for unscrupulous
actors.

~~~
29c3b2bb4
Exactly my thoughts! Really, we shouldn't have prisons at all, or any against-
one's-will system. Just take a look at Chicago. With the new attorney general,
they've made it a policy to "go easy" on the violent crimes. The bottom line
is: no one should be in prison, regardless of the "crime".

~~~
monkeywork
>Really, we shouldn't have prisons at all, or any against-one's-will system

Then what do you suggest we do with people who are harming people or their
property? Speak firmly at them? For pretty much all of human history you have
had three options for those who damage peace and society ... death, exile, and
jail.

Exile isn't really an option anymore so that leaves death and jail...

------
joshmn
I just want to say good luck. There's so much that can be done that isn't.
Part of that is the system. Part of that is Securus. Part of that is lobbying.
Part of that is just plain lack of innovation.

There's room here to innovate. I had a product that effectively allowed
inmates to have a Soundcloud from the prison phone. It pissed off a few
people.

~~~
estreeper
Could you elaborate on what your experience was and the pushback you received?
It would also be interesting to hear a bit more about what you built!

~~~
bdcravens
Many states ban any kind of social media access by inmates, even through a
third party

[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2017/may/5/texas-
prison...](https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2017/may/5/texas-prison-
system-bans-social-media-prisoners/)

Obviously there's some nuance as to whether Soundcloud is social media, but
the bigger point is that prisons want to control inmates' ability to
communicate

~~~
aerostable_slug
>the bigger point is that prisons want to control inmates' ability to
communicate

For good reason. Uncontrolled inmate communications result in things like
murder:

"The complaint alleges that Corbett planned several killings with Ronald Dean
Yandell, aka Renegade, an Aryan Brotherhood leader who prosecutors say sits on
the three-man commission that runs the gang. Corbett and Yandell were
incarcerated 220 miles apart from one another, but regularly communicated
through contraband prison cell phones, prosecutors say."
[https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/01/ca-inmate-was-
killed-...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/01/ca-inmate-was-killed-
minutes-after-prison-gave-him-aryan-brotherhood-associate-as-new-cellmate-
lawsuit-says/)

"Consider the case of a, a 38-year-old Maryland resident who had the bad luck
to witness a street murder in Baltimore and the rare courage to agree to
testify against the accused killer, Patrick Byers. According to prosecutors,
Byers acquired a phone while awaiting trial in Baltimore's City Detention
Center. He obtained Lackl's name, address, and phone number and allegedly
texted that information to a friend on the outside, along with an offer of
$2,500 to get rid of Lackl. On July 2, 2007, the friend rounded up a couple of
thugs and drove out to Lackl's modest suburban home, where authorities say the
crew blasted him to death with a .44 Magnum."
[https://www.wired.com/2009/05/ff-
prisonphones/](https://www.wired.com/2009/05/ff-prisonphones/)

"While authorities say Johnson is the first corrections officer in the U.S.
harmed by a hit ordered from inmate’s cell phone, other people have been
targets. In 2005, a New Jersey inmate serving time for shooting at two police
officers used a smuggled phone to order a fatal attack on his girlfriend, who
had given authorities information leading to his arrest."
[https://newsone.com/753345/prisoner-ordered-hit-outside-
of-p...](https://newsone.com/753345/prisoner-ordered-hit-outside-of-prison-
with-smuggled-cell-phone/)

There are more examples, but I think these illustrate that it's a very good
idea to have control over inmate communications.

~~~
x86_64Ubuntu
We don't need to restrict inmates free speech as conspiring to murder someone
is already illegal.

~~~
aerostable_slug
You probably want to at least monitor their communications though; there is
essentially no right to privacy for prisoners unless they are communicating
with counsel. That means restricting the types of communication they can use
(if only for practical reasons).

I think most people would agree we all want to avoid scenarios like this:

"Inside rolls of razor-wire fence, behind a network of heavy metal doors,
locked alone in a North Carolina prison cell for 23 hours every day, a high-
ranking gang leader directed accomplices in Georgia to carry out a contract
killing. Step by step over a smuggled cellphone, the prisoner instructed gang
members in chilling detail: “Gag him real tight. Put something in his mouth.
Put something over his head.” The plot, to kill a prosecutor’s father, was
foiled in April 2014. The inmate – a founder of the United Blood Nation – was
sentenced in November to life plus 84 months on kidnapping and related
charges."
[https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article15...](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article152334207.html)

~~~
Infinitesimus
It seems your fundamental premise that is that since a few prisoners are very
risky, we should impose extremely harsh measures on all of them regardless of
what got them in there the first place. Is that right?

That's a problematic viewpoint because the same argument can apply to any free
person today: "some people in this neighborhood committed some crimes a while
ago so let's keep an extra eye on those in the zipcode. Maybe wiretap their
houses and restrict communication."

Will that sit well with you?

Those who profit off the prison industrial complex and those who simply hate
certain populations want you to believe that our prisons are full of extremely
violent people who should be dehumanizing and taken from society as
punishment. A lot of people are there because they had the wrong skin color,
got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, are truly innocent, got
thrown in jail for a harmless "crime" like having weed, etc.

------
pikwip
This looks fantastic. One bit of feedback: the lack of a Paypal option for
donating almost stopped me from donating. The fees might be worth the security
guarantee.

~~~
jessehorne
We'll get that fixed ASAP.

------
iamthepieman
Do you need volunteer developers or other types of professionals?

~~~
jessehorne
We could use all the help we can get. If you'd like, just reach out to our
email with what you're interested in helping with or any skills you may have.
I'm sure we can figure out something and I'm thankful you're interested in
helping us!

team@ameelio.org

------
_jal
This is a really wonderful thing you're doing. Thank you.

------
sanj
Are you all working with

[https://www.flikshop.com/](https://www.flikshop.com/)

?

If not, I’m happy to put you in contact.

Do you have any (formerly?) incarcerated members on your leadership team?

------
freedomben
Are your products open source so volunteers can contribute?

~~~
jessehorne
I'm really glad you asked. Initially, the plan was to open source all of our
tools. However, we decided to hold off on that until we pick an appropriate
license for each project and do some more planning. We're looking for
volunteers though and I would love to work with you on this. Feel free to
contact us. team@ameelio.org

------
catlas3r
This is a good cause, but the headline given to this post threw me.

Clearly, it's meant as "make communication between prisoners and their loved
ones outside of prison free of cost"

But because of the phrasing, I read it as "make prison communication-free" or
"make it be such that prisons are free from communication" which is a scary
draconian dystopia that I can sadly imagine happening in my and many other
parts of the world.

------
dudul
> Nearly one in two Americans has a family member who is either currently or
> formerly incarcerated. > 34% of families with a loved one in prison are sent
> into debt by the cost of maintaining contact.

Can you add links to the sources for these stats? They just sound unreal and
I'd like to understand better how the cost of maintaining contact becomes so
high.

~~~
Zoorchingwa
Hi, this is Zo (co-founder).

"Nearly one in two Americans has a family member who is either currently or
formerly incarcerated."

Source: Cornell University & Fwd.us study

[https://www.fwd.us/news/groundbreaking-report-half-of-
all-u-...](https://www.fwd.us/news/groundbreaking-report-half-of-all-u-s-
adults-have-immediate-family-member-currently-or-previously-incarcerated/)

"34% of families with a loved one in prison are sent into debt by the cost of
maintaining contact."

Sources: [https://nyti.ms/35qNlNZ;](https://nyti.ms/35qNlNZ;)
[http://whopaysreport.org/executive-
summary/](http://whopaysreport.org/executive-summary/)

Here are some additional sources on the exorbitant costs loved ones of the
incarcerated face:

NYTimes: [https://nyti.ms/3aVrqzD](https://nyti.ms/3aVrqzD) Marshall Project:
[https://bit.ly/2y95Avf](https://bit.ly/2y95Avf) Wired:
[https://bit.ly/2xsGRBJ](https://bit.ly/2xsGRBJ) Prison Policy Initiative:
[https://bit.ly/3d3DtMw](https://bit.ly/3d3DtMw)

------
throwaway13239
Awesome mission, wishing you guys all the best.

But Ameelio sounds like Emilio. Using latino men's names is probably not the
most appropriate idea for this

------
downshun
Seems like a worthy goal. Hoping for your success.

Some sour negativity for good balance, from someone unfamiliar with criminal
systems :

Are there mechanisms in place for verification of the sender and some
potential criminal misuse of your platform?

------
jennylee68
I'm Jenny, and I am currently the Growth and Social Media Manager in Ameelio.
We've been working hard to reach out to different organizations that work with
incarcerated people and immigration detention centers to further spread the
influence we can have, alleviating burdens - financial, emotional, and
physical - that family members feel.

The Ameelio Ambassadors has been a great help towards spreading the word. They
are a group of people who are passionate about bringing a change to the
current communication system in prisons and detention centers, volunteering to
increase awareness about the service we provide. Together with their help and
the support we are receiving from organizations that responded to our
outreach, I believe that Ameelio will able to bring tangible changes to the
current communication system, envisioning a legislative change in the future
that would provide the people with their basic needs: communicating with their
loved ones with no burden.

~~~
lazyasciiart
You should get in touch with Unloop in Seattle - they teach programming in
prison and have a small freelance dev shop staffed by people who went through
their program. [https://www.un-loop.org/](https://www.un-loop.org/)

~~~
Zoorchingwa
Zo (co-founder). Thanks for sharing, we will definitely reach out to them.

------
Genome1776
Awesome work, looking forward to seeing this really take hold. This can be
such a blessing to families and the mental health of inmates. Too many times
have friends and family in lockup gone long times without hearing from loved
ones because of the costs involved. Keep up the great work for a great cause.

------
zachiemills
This is truly an amazing cause! Incarcerated people and their families deserve
better, and Ameelio's organization and outreach is going to provide an
incredible impact. I cannot wait to watch this organization grow!

~~~
Zoorchingwa
Thanks so much! Really appreciate it.

------
michaelgiba
I read this headline as "Making Prison Communication-Free" and thought it was
some sort of cruel experiment

~~~
dang
If there's a better wording, we can change it.

Edit: I've changed it to the HTML doc title for now.

------
flyGuyOnTheSly
Just a tip upon first glance...

You might want to make the homepage a bit more politically correct by changing
up the first (and only?) two incarcerated ethnicities from being Black and
Hispanic.

I am aware they make up the majority of the American prison population, but
they really shouldn't.

Seems like a worthwhile project though. Good luck!

------
steviedotboston
is Gil Amelio involved in this?

~~~
jessehorne
Nope! The name is inspired from the word "Ameliorate", meaning "to make
better".

------
rshnotsecure
This is just Zoom. The partners and sponsors almost all conspicuously mention
Zoom meetings and Zoom Celebrations on their websites. Especially because of
the major WSJ story today on Zoom and the origins of the Coronavirus, it seems
very implausible that anyone mentions Zoom anymore overtly without having an
agenda.

The co-founders are all from Yale, and have the best of intentions, but don't
realize they have to some extent been manipulated.

I think this phrase was a little concerning as well. There is a decent
historical record that has been built up over the last 10 years of stuff like
this being abused: "We also use machine learning tools to make predictions".
What are they trying to forecast? When did talking and letter writing
necessarily need machine learning? I'm not at all saying it is dumb...but we
should approach all of this with caution and hesitancy.

~~~
Zoorchingwa
Hi, I'm Zo (co-founder). We have no affiliation with Zoom. But given the
fortune they’ve made recently, we would certainly appreciate it if they
donated ([https://bit.ly/2z7J4CP](https://bit.ly/2z7J4CP)).

While many of us are Yale students, we come varying backgrounds. I'm a
Nigerian-American (born in Chicago, spent my early childhood in Nigeria, and
now live in CT). Gabe is Brazilian, Jesse is from Iowa, etc. We all connected
on this project because we are committed to social innovation and want to do
all we can to stop the exploitation of loved ones of incarcerated people, who
are disproportionately low-income.

Re data and prediction: scholars of incarceration lament the dearth of data on
the criminal justice system.

NYTimes- “Missing: Criminal Justice Data”
([https://nyti.ms/2FUEkDq)—](https://nyti.ms/2FUEkDq\)—) “Criminal justice
data in this country is hard to come by. It can be messy and difficult to
understand. And in many cases, the data doesn’t exist at all...Missing data is
at the core of a national crisis.”

John Pfaff- Locked In ([https://amzn.to/3aZYB5X)—](https://amzn.to/3aZYB5X\)—)
“Perhaps even more troubling, there are some issues where we simply have no
data, where almost nothing at all is gathered.”

Elected officials are creating criminal justice policies, that impact
millions, with limited information. We want to inform better policymaking
using data analytics. The folks are Measure of Justice
([https://measuresforjustice.org/about/overview](https://measuresforjustice.org/about/overview))
are leading way, and we want to help where we can.

Scholars of algorithmic bias have convinced me that algorithmic risk
assessment has disparate impact on minority groups, so I’m personally not in
favor of these tools
([https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/1/eaao5580;](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/1/eaao5580;)
[https://ssrn.com/abstract=3257004](https://ssrn.com/abstract=3257004)). We
will not be doing any risk assessment etc. Using past data to better
understand and predict how the state prison populations might change in the
future could yield insightful information.

In my home state of CT, “between 2008 and 2018, the state prison population
has fallen by 30 percent, and the minority prison population has dropped by 32
percent” ([https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/02/13/ct-prison-
populati...](https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/02/13/ct-prison-population-
on-the-decline/)). The article also notes:

“Marc Pelka, undersecretary of the Connecticut Office of Policy and
Management’s Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division, told the News that
while it is “hard to pinpoint a single policy or trend,” he named a few
reasons for the decline in state prison population.”

Understanding why states like CT have been effective in reducing their prison
population could help other states do the same. I really appreciate the
feedback, we will make our language around data analytics more clear. Please
keep the comments coming!

Zo

