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The first time Uzoma Orchingwa wrote a letter to a prison, he was in college, trying to reach an incarcerated childhood friend. The letter never arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n Communicating with inmates in America is notoriously difficult\u2014physical addresses are different from mailing addresses, phone calls are exorbitantly expensive, and visiting a state facility requires a <\/span>100-mile<\/span><\/a> trek, on average.<\/span><\/p>\n Orchingwa has successfully sent many letters since, and while writing his masters dissertation on criminology at Cambridge, he waded deep into research on prison reform\u2014and concluded reforms alone won\u2019t quickly solve the system\u2019s many problems. Now he\u2019s at Yale Law School building <\/span>Ameelio<\/span><\/a>, a digital platform that has already printed and shipped 22,000 letters to inmates and is preparing to launch a free video call system for jails and prisons. <\/span>The Kickstarter campaign<\/span><\/a> will help make it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n Ameelio is taking on a <\/span>$1.2 billion<\/span><\/a> communication service industry\u2014mostly a duopoly between Securus and Global Tel Link. In all but 11 states, it\u2019s legal for these companies to charge inmates punishingly high rates for phone calls, <\/span>pocket margins of 50 per cent or more<\/span><\/a>, and pay jails and prisons millions of dollars in kickbacks. Former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn <\/span>called the industry<\/span><\/a> \u201cthe clearest, most glaring type of market failure I\u2019ve ever seen as a regulator.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n America\u2019s most vulnerable populations are paying for it. Families report spending up to <\/span>$500 a month<\/span><\/a> to stay connected, and <\/span>one in three<\/span><\/a> of these families is forced into debt paying for phone calls and visits alone. Family members who are not able to talk or visit regularly are much more likely to report experiencing negative health impacts related to a family member\u2019s incarceration, and isolated inmates face increased challenges readjusting upon their release.<\/span><\/p>\n There has been <\/span>new scrutiny<\/span><\/a> on the issue in recent years, but with uneven progress. A phone call in a city-run Illinois jail, for example, costs <\/span>52 times more<\/span><\/a> than a call from a state-run Illinois prison. \u201cWe don\u2019t have one justice system,\u201d Orchingwa explains, \u201cwe have 51 separate systems. Then underneath that we have counties that have their own stakeholders and incentives.\u201d He hopes that his free communication platform will stop the cycle of overwhelmed administrators letting exploitative businesses into their facilities. \u201cBasically our theory of change is establishing ourselves as a free alternative to the for-profit companies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To take on big businesses\u2014and big technical requirements\u2014Orchingwa started with a more straightforward product: a web and mobile app that lets users type letters and upload photos. Ameelio then prints, adds postage, and mails them at no cost. (The bootstrapped non-profit has gathered grants from Robin Hood, Mozilla Builders, and Fast Forward to cover expenses.)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt made sense to start with letters because there\u2019s very little barrier to entry and the vast majority of people who are incarcerated communicate through letters,\u201d Orchingwa says. \u201cWe could bring it online, digitise it, and boost contact.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As the team rolled out the initial app, interest spread quickly. Close to 50 per cent of Ameelio\u2019s users come directly from referrals of people who are incarcerated\u2014they\u2019ll see letters others are receiving and call home to tell their community about the platform.<\/span><\/p>\n Criminal justice organisations soon learned about Ameelio as well. \u201cWe were building out this nationwide database because we want to make it easier for our users to find their loved ones and communicate with them. It hadn\u2019t occurred to us that reentry organisations didn\u2019t actually have much visibility either,\u201d Orchingwa says. Even preeminent institutions like PEN America and Harvard\u2019s legal clinics had very limited data and cumbersome mailing processes. The Ameelio team added new product features aimed at these types of users doing outreach and re-entry work.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, the fast-growing team is nearing their ultimate goal: a service for free video calls. Inmates will sign on with tablets that are either fixed in a supervised phone bank or available for checkout during visiting hours. The software will allow for scheduling, identity verification, and screenshots or video playback for security compliance. Orchingwa is finalising a pilot program with a mid-sized county jail and looking forward to future iterations that could add education programs and telehealth to the tablets and generate data supporting prison reform.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be able to provide metrics and be able to work with legislators to say, \u2018Look, in Connecticut, we find that incarcerated people who have weekly access to their loved one fare much better.\u2019 We should think a little more creatively about recidivism and sentencing,\u201d Orchingwa says. \u201cAnd we hope to be a technology service that can also do advocacy and accelerate legislative change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Prison](\"https:\/\/cdn.screenshot-media.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/23123637\/Screen-Shot-Media-Ameelio-prison-inmates-communication-app-Kickstarter.jpg\")
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