Worth Rises
We work to dismantle the prison industrial complex and end the exploitation of those it touches.
As a nation, we spend more than $80 billion annually to incarcerate 2.2 million people in facilities whose deplorable conditions, subpar treatment services, and ineffective programs engender recidivism. We spend another $100 billion on the courts and police who fill their beds. But the social costs of our failing criminal legal system, such as the harm done to people, families, and communities, are far higher. And these costs are not distributed evenly—their burden is carried largely by those we already detrimentally marginalize: low-income communities of color. But, adding insult to injury, over the past few decades, private, public, and illicit actors have found various ways to financially exploit our criminal legal system and those it touches, victims and prisoners alike. From bail to probation and construction to commissary, these actors have commercialized each segment of our punishment continuum and built an industry that depends on stripping people of their liberties. In doing so, they have converted the justice-involved and their communities into cash machines, capitalizing on crime to create a legal form of human trafficking that targets those our social structures have failed. Our system is now laden with public, private, and illicit actors whose financial incentives conflict with the criminal justice goals of reducing crime and incarceration. Compensated based on volume, these actors are motivated to help expand the criminal legal system and increase government spending rather than contract the system and cut their share of the payouts. To protect their financial interests, they purchase power through legislative lobbying and campaign financing and wield it to protect the legal structures that support their growth. These efforts create an invisible, but fortified barrier to building a criminal legal system that is truly rooted in justice. Thus, while well-meaning reformers struggle to decriminalize drugs, promote alternatives to incarceration, or reduce sentences, their efforts are thwarted by the oft-ignored imbalance of economic and political power between affected communities and those who profit from their victimization, criminalization, and incarceration. Recognizing the intentional obfuscation and abuse of this power, we must reject the perceived legitimacy of the legal, political, and social frameworks these actors shape that artificially celebrate incremental criminal justice reform to avoid radical change.
10/06/2026
Corporations shouldn't get to profit from incarceration like a private business while hiding from consequences like the government.
10/03/2026
For years, correctional telecom corporations convinced facilities to prohibit visits so that incarcerated people would be forced to use their costly communication systems. Now, at least for some incarcerated children, that changes.
Diane Lewis, whose son was in incarcerated for more than a decade, knows exactly what she'd say to those profitting from prison and jail calls. Hear her and other stories at ConnectFamiliesNow.com/poweroffree.
09/21/2026
A Texas corporation just launched an AI tool that listens to prison calls, identifying every speaker on the line, including the loved ones who aren't incarcerated. Similar tools have existed in jails for over a decade, and past investigations found hundreds of thousands of voiceprints collected this way, many belonging to people never convicted of a crime. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/ai-prison-voice
09/18/2026
As what we looked like in the 80s fills our feed, let's take a peek at correctional telecom. It traces back to a single moment: the 1984 breakup of AT&T's monopoly. But in prisons and jails, that opening didn't bring competition that lowered prices, it brought niche corporations that created a whole new monopoly eager to exploit a captive market.
09/14/2026
Trump has been trading private prison stock worth up to $990k since taking office. His Administration is stacked with former GEO Group insiders, from his acting ICE director to his border czar and his attorney general. The executives of both corporations predicted a windfall from his immigration policies, and they were right. Now he's benefitting.
09/09/2026
$307,000 is not a typo. The Trump Administration is using taxpayer dollars to buy up prisons from private operators and they're paying an astounding sum for them. Corporations like CoreCivic are raking in the cash selling these beds off, and they'll make another bundle for the contracts to operate them. All this is to make the facilities federal property and avoid state scrutiny.
09/03/2026
Aramark controls 35% of the U.S. correctional food services market. A new report found its meals commonly fall short of dietary guidelines, with widespread reports of spoiled food and safety violations. When one company controls both food service and commissary, it has a financial incentive to serve less so people buy more. Read the full story: bit.ly/4wTtxhW
08/31/2026
1 in 3 families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt trying to stay connected. It doesn't have to be this way. Join the fight to make calls free: ConnectFamiliesNow.com/PowerOfFree
08/11/2026
There are an increasing number of headlines about incarcerated and detained people dying in transport. Let's talk about it. Get the full breakdown in The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits: worthrises.org/theprisonindustry.
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