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Martin
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August 12, 2015
O PINION
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Enter the social
justice startups
B EN J EALOUS
President
Obama’s impas-
sioned call for
criminal justice
reform at last
month’s NAACP
national conven-
tion was the latest
sign that bipartisan criminal jus-
tice reform is on the way. In the
midst of this movement is anoth-
er, untold story about an army of
entrepreneurs that is changing the
way jails and prison work for the
better.
When it comes to criminal jus-
tice reform, the inside game is just
as important as the outside game.
America locks up more of its pop-
ulation than any other country on
the planet, and more of its black
population than South Africa at
the height of Apartheid. Police
commissioners brag about being
“tough on crime” and cleaning
up the streets. But the fact is that
more than 4 out of 10 people who
are released from prison in the
United States will return within
three years. Our jails and pris-
ons are failing at their primary
purpose - rehabilitation - which
means more crime, more violence,
and more broken families.
BY
When our inside game is bro-
ken, our outside game gets even
harder. It doesn’t have to be this
way. The way we treat people in
jail and prison has a direct im-
pact on whether or not they will
reoffend. Yet over the past few
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the agencies that regulate them
have not only failed to invest
in necessities like effective ed-
ucational programs and cheap
phone calls; they have active-
ly opposed those programs that
work.
A new movement in the tech
world is seeking to change that.
A class of social justice-oriented
companies - what I call “justice
tech” startups - has emerged as
a counterweight to the prison-in-
dustrial complex. The founders of
these startups come from a circle
of activists, former prisoners and
social entrepreneurs who under-
stand that sometimes change has
to come from outside the system.
One of these startups is Pi-
geonly. In 2007 Pigeonly founder
Frederick Hutson was sentenced
to 51 months in federal lockup on
marijuana charges (a venture that,
it’s worth noting, would be legal
in some states today). He wit-
nessed the pain of isolation for the
young men behind bars, and knew
that regular contact with family
members lowers the odds that an
offender will return to prison af-
ter he has been released. He also
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the country struck self-serving
deals with private phone compa-
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prices for phone calls home.
Upon his release, Huston decid-
ed to start a company that would
cater to the incarcerated directly.
Pigeonly’s customers in federal
prison purchase telephone time
from their commissary, which
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long-distance calls. Pigeonly uses
Google Voice-style technology to
change the game so that all calls
are “local.”
This process shaves 60 to 80
percent off the cost of calls in
federal prisons. His service is
soon expanding from the federal
system to state prisons and jails,
where savings promise to be even
higher. In some jails, for instance,
calling home can cost more than
$18 for a 15 minute phone call.
Another justice tech company
is Jail Education Solutions. State
funding for prison educational
programs has continuously de-
creased since 1982, even as the
prison population has swelled.
It’s telling that most people
who arrive in prison illiterate are
illiterate when they leave. Bri-
an Hill, a recent business school
graduate whose father taught
community college classes at
Folsom State Prison, saw this as
an opportunity to innovate. His
company provides jails with tab-
let devices that offer educational
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model that has inmates rent de-
vices for a small fee, the tablets
provide content like GED prep,
vocational training and college
courses.
The tablet service has earned
the early support of reform-mind-
ed sheriffs who are eager to dis-
rupt the cycle of people repeat-
edly moving in and out of jail.
Inmates who take advantage of
educational programming are 43
percent less likely to return with-
in three years than those who do
not. These sheriffs see tech-savvy
educational offerings as a practi-
cal and affordable solution to re-
cidivism.
As the long-overdue movement
for broad criminal justice reform
continues, we cannot forget the
importance of what happens, or
does not happen, inside jails and
prisons. We need to improve our
inside game as well as our outside
game to ensure jails and prisons
work, and these justice tech start-
ups can help make that future
come faster.
Ben Jealous is former president
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NAACP, and a partner at Kapor
Capital, a social impact investing
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Jail Education Solutions.