JLG Technologies, LLC provides voice biometric analysis and investigative tools to the corrections and law enforcement. These technologies allow the company, prison officials, and police to surveil incarcerated people and anyone who communicates with them. This surveillance includes traditional listening, transcription and text analysis of voice calls, and big data analysis that can be used to identify individuals or groups that may be targeted by police or prison officials. Surveillance that monitors incarcerated people but can be used to monitor people on the outside too.
The company was purchased by Securus Technologies (based in Texas) in 2014, whose owner Tom Gores also owns the Detroit Pistons and has come under fire for profiting off of incarcerated people and their loved ones. Thanks to the research and advocacy organization Worth Rises (among others), some states like Connecticut have made calls in and out of prison free, so that companies like Securus can’t make exorbitant profits off incarcerated people staying connected to their loved ones. Nonetheless, the company has lobbied against bans, as the business is extremely lucrative. Securus as also pushed facilities to reduce or eliminate in-person visitation (as far back as 2015) and replace them with video visitations. Though video visits are helpful for people incarcerated far from loved ones, Securus charges high fees (sometimes $1 per minute) for what users say is incredibly poor service. This move toward video visits has only increased since the start of the pandemic in 2020, and many facilities have completely eliminated in-person visits. Clearly represents another case of private companies treating incarcerated people as sources of revenue.
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