Two lawsuits filed this week accuse Michigan sheriff's offices of colluding with large prison telecom companies to end face-to-face jail visitations and then price gouge families who are forced to rely on expensive phone calls and video chats, in return for major kickbacks.
Civil Rights Corps, a criminal justice advocacy nonprofit, filed the two class-actions in Michigan state court, one in Genesee County and the other in St. Clair County, on behalf of multiple residents who say the visitation bans deprive children of the ability to hug their incarcerated parents. The lawsuits claim two major prison technology providers—Securus Technologies and Global Tel*Link (GTL)—dangled significant financial incentives in front of Genesee and St. Clair officials to install video chat kiosks in jails that would eventually replace face-to-face visits.
