skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, April 26, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Film Fights Prison Phone Price-Gouging

play audio
Play

Friday, October 12, 2012   

NEW YORK - In the new movie Middle of Nowhere, a wrenching story unfolds amid the hardships endured by those outside as they try to support loved ones behind bars. One such burden is the cost of phone calls, jacked up by prison telephone service contracts. The film's director, Ava DuVernay, says those costs are the result of monopolies that benefit phone companies and state governments.

"To further victimize folks with these exorbitant phone rates that have so many ripple effects for the community is just not right."

Members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently saw an advance screening of the film, arranged by advocates who have been trying for more than 12 years to get the FCC to step in and cap the cost of interstate calls from prison. They say they are encouraged that the commissioners may be finally starting to listen.

DuVernay was awarded 'best director' honors at the Sundance Film Festival. She says her film addresses the isolation of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in America, nearly 40 percent of them black and nearly 20 percent Latino.

"These are human beings that shouldn't be deprived of connection and ultimately, the connection with their family - definitely it's been proven and studied - increases their chances of successful re-entry when they get out."

Lee Petro is a Washington lawyer who has been working for a dozen years on behalf of Martha Wright, a grandmother of a former prison inmate, who is petitioning the FCC to reform prison phone costs. He says the screening of the film for FCC staffers, arranged by Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, was unprecedented and helpful.

"A movie can do a much better job of telling the tale than anything I can do in a set of comments filed with the FCC."

The groups that make up the Media Action Grassroots Network say Middle of Nowhere may be helping them finally get somewhere on the issue of unfair prison telephone service contracts.

More information on the campaign to reform prison phone costs can be found at http://www.takepart.com/MiddleOfNowhere




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The United Nations experts also expressed concern over a Chemours application to expand PFAS production in North Carolina. (Adobe Stock)

play sound

United Nations experts are raising concerns about chemical giants DuPont and Chemours, saying they've violated human rights in North Carolina…


Social Issues

play sound

The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in …

Environment

play sound

Conservation groups say the Hawaiian Islands are on the leading edge of the fight to preserve endangered birds, since climate change and habitat loss …


Jane Kleeb is director and founder of Bold Alliance, an umbrella organization of Bold Nebraska, which was instrumental in stopping the Keystone Pipeline. Kleeb is also one of two 2023 Climate Breakthrough Awardees. (Bold Alliance)

Environment

play sound

CO2 pipelines are on the increase in the United States, and like all pipelines, they come with risks. Preparing for those risks is a major focus of …

Environment

play sound

April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the …

Legislation to curtail the union membership rights of about 50,000 public school educators in Lousiana has the backing of some business and national conservative groups. (wavebreak3/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Leaders of a teachers' union in Louisiana are voicing concerns about a package of bills they say would have the effect of dissolving labor unions in t…

Health and Wellness

play sound

The 2024 Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Public Conference kicks off Saturday, where industry experts and researchers will share the latest scientific …

Environment

play sound

Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge. A court granted a temporary …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021