Two corporations, Securus and Global Tel Link, control more than 70 percent of American prison telecommunications , serving a literal captive market. The result is high costs for calls that send families into debt, even though family contact while in prison reduces recidivism. Enter Ameelio, a new nonprofit launched by 29-year-old Uzoma Orchingwa that aims to give inmates free calls. But so far, states and localities are reluctant to give up the cash cow of pricey calls — as they split the proceeds with the companies.

In recent years, several reform-minded prosecutors have been elected in big cities, vowing to reduce jail and prison populations. The recent protests have given more energy to those candidates — some of whom even embrace their own criminal records. But it’s also brought stepped-up criticism from President Donald Trump and other Republicans with murders spiking this summer in major cities, even as overall violent crime continues to fall. One reformer to watch? Eliza Orlins, a public defender running for Manhattan district attorney … who has a reality TV side hustle.

When it came time to pass a justice reform bill in Congress following Floyd’s death, Democratic leaders turned to Rep. Karen Bass, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus who’s spent her life in activism. Now she’s a top choice to be Joe Biden’s running mate, and in an exclusive interview on The Carlos Watson Show, she opens up about her unlikely journey, what it would mean to be veep and her martial arts prowess. Don’t miss the thrilling new talk show that has generated 1 MILLION VIEWS in the first 24 hours! 

4. Abolish Prisons?

As “Defund the Police” has become a nationwide rallying cry, the radical notion of abolishing prisons is also getting a second look. The idea has long been touted by veteran activists like Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who say long sentences are needlessly punitive and the money should be reinvested in the community. Meanwhile, advocates argue that keeping people locked up — especially those over age 50 — is a massive public health crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, making mass release imperative.

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1. Ancient Remedy

Prison records go as far back as ancient Sumer and the Code of Ur-Nammu, the earliest surviving written laws, dating to roughly 2100 B.C. They identify imprisonment (and a fine) as a penalty for kidnapping. But ancient civilizations didn’t use prison as their primary punishment tool, opting instead for forced labor or forms of direct retribution (read: torture). The Greeks and Romans typically used prisons to house people awaiting execution.

2. Re-entering Society

The concept of using prison to rehabilitate criminals took off in the 18th and 19th centuries in the U.K. and U.S. That movement helped prisons progress from hellholes to somewhat livable. But it also resulted in the rise of something we now know makes matters much worse: solitary confinement, which many proponents saw as a benefit for prisoners as they’d have more time to contemplate the error of their ways.

How did America’s prisons get so overstuffed today, with the U.S. incarcerating more people total and per capita than any country on the planet? A lot of it has to do with the war on drugs, a war linked to the head of the precursor to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Harry Anslinger, a racist ex-Prohibition agent looking for a new scapegoat once booze became legal again. Anslinger went on a crusade against marijuana, which he implied could turn people into murderers.

1. The Scourge of Rape

One of the most disturbing parts of prison life is the persistence of rape. The numbers are chillingly high in youth facilities, where 7.1 percent of young people report being sexually victimized in the previous year. The Department of Justice has stepped up enforcing policies in the past decade to prevent rape, such as preventing juveniles from being incarcerated with adults, expanding video monitoring and blocking cross-gender pat-down searches. 

2. Deep South Dangers

Despite all the modern laws and gadgets, plenty of American prisons still have a medieval feel. A recent DOJ investigation into Alabama prisons describes systemic and horrific violence, including one officer screaming “I am the reaper of death” as he beat a prisoner. The DOJ is now investigating Mississippi prisons after a spate of deaths and riots. Possible recourse would be a federal lawsuit and consent decree over control of the prisons. The Deep South does actually score better than other parts of the country on the racial equity of its incarceration. The reason? Those states lock up a ton of whites too. Overcrowding is their biggest problem.

Guatemala has seen its female prison population spike in recent years in part as a result of the relationships between male gang members in prison and their women, who at least initially are on the outside. Their hearts, rather than their minds, are pulling them into a life of crime. “It is the test of love in Guatemala,” says Andrea Barrios, an advocate for her country’s female inmates, more than a third of whom are behind bars for extortion.

1. Norway

In the 1990s, this Scandinavian country went toward a light-touch incarceration model, with a focus on getting the prisoners more time outdoors, and better mentoring and educational programming. Prison can almost feel like a health retreat. But the results are clear, with recidivism rates around 20 percent (down from 60 to 70 percent). The approach is now being picked up in North Dakota and Oregon.

Beena Chintalapuri trains inmates in the elements of cognitive behavioral psychology, giving those with longer sentences an intensive four-week training course that targets their reasoning and thought processes. These inmates then go on to train other prisoners and and sometimes even correctional officers. The result? In some of the jails she’s worked in, recidivism has been slashed from 80 percent to 1 percent.

3. Dominican Republic

Since 2003, this Caribbean nation has started implementing an alternative prison model across the country that focuses on humane treatment, with prisoners spending their time on work, education, art and sports. The model has led to re-offending rates under 5 percent, among the lowest in the world.

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy sold paintings for $300 a pop while he was on death row — and one even wound up in the possession of actor Johnny Depp. Now they sell for several thousand bucks, and no, it’s not because of the quality.

Being a student dissident in Argentina in the 1970s carried considerable risks. One of them was gruesome torture at the hands of the police. Nestor Fantini was one of the lucky ones ... because he survived.

She was the mother of two inmates. Now she performs prison weddings. Jo Anne Hall has been jumping through all kinds of state-mandated hoops to make sure incarcerated Texans can be brides or grooms for a day, and she finds it incredibly rewarding.