PLATINUM EQUITY’S NOT SO SECURUS INVESTMENT

The report details how Securus Technologies, under the ownership of Platinum Equity, extracts high fees from incarcerated individuals and their families for phone calls, money transfers, and e-messaging. It highlights the disproportionate impact on women of color and low-income communities, noting that one in three families go into debt to cover these costs. The document also outlines regulatory risks, including FCC fines and legislative efforts to make prison calls free, as well as severe privacy breaches involving the recording of attorney-client privileged calls and the use of biometric voice prints.

• Securus Technologies and its subsidiary JPay impose high costs on impoverished families, with some paying up to $1 per minute for calls and facing fees as high as 35% for $20 money transfers. These costs disproportionately affect women of color, who make up 87 percent of the family members responsible for these expenses.
• The report identifies a 'near-duopoly' in the prison telecom industry between Securus and Global Tel Link (GTL), both owned by private equity firms. This lack of competition allows for predatory pricing and the bundling of services to lock in correctional facilities.
• Securus has faced significant regulatory penalties and restrictions, including a $1.7 million fine paid to the FCC to resolve an investigation into misleading information provided during its acquisition by Platinum Equity. Additionally, the FCC blocked Securus's 2019 attempt to merge with Inmate Calling Solutions (ICS) due to competition concerns.
• There is a growing legislative trend toward eliminating charges for prison phone calls. New York City became the first city to pass such a law in August 2018, and other jurisdictions like Connecticut, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and counties in Tennessee and North Carolina have pursued similar reforms.
• Securus has been implicated in massive privacy and security failures, including a leak of over 70 million call recordings, at least 57,000 of which were privileged communications between inmates and attorneys.
• The company employs surveillance technologies that raise civil liberties concerns, such as geolocation services that have been accessed illegally by law enforcement and 'Investigator Pro,' which creates biometric voice prints of incarcerated and non-incarcerated people.

APA

Baker, J. (2019). PLATINUM EQUITY’S NOT SO SECURUS INVESTMENT. Private Equity Stakeholder Project. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Platinum-Equitys-Not-So-Securus-Investment-PESP-052119.pdf

Chicago

Baker, Jim. PLATINUM EQUITY’S NOT SO SECURUS INVESTMENT. Private Equity Stakeholder Project, 2019. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Platinum-Equitys-Not-So-Securus-Investment-PESP-052119.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Baker |first1=Jim |title=PLATINUM EQUITY’S NOT SO SECURUS INVESTMENT |publisher=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |date=May 2019 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Platinum-Equitys-Not-So-Securus-Investment-PESP-052119.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{baker2019platinum, author = {Baker, Jim}, title = {{PLATINUM EQUITY’S NOT SO SECURUS INVESTMENT}}, institution = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2019}, month = may, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Platinum-Equitys-Not-So-Securus-Investment-PESP-052119.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }