Please join Public Knowledge in supporting the Media
Literacy Project, Strong Families, and Thousand Kites in their efforts to produce
“Calls from Home: Mama’s Day Special,” a radio project that connects
incarcerated mothers to their families, friends, and
communities.
Mother’s Day is a time to cherish the special connections in
our families. Yet for the over 2 million people in our prison system, those
connections are only maintained through a phone.
Making calls from prison are expensive and up to 60% of what prisoners’
families pay to speak to their loved ones behind bars have nothing to do
with the cost of the phone service provided. The high rates of prison phone
calls are the result of contracts between prisons and telephone companies
that are awarded based on which company can provide the highest kickback
to the prison and not who can provide the cheapest rates.
On Friday, May 11th, the Prison Phone Justice Campaign is hosting
a Mother’s Day of Action, asking the Federal Communications
Commission to use its power to address the high cost of prison phone
calls. We want to help collect 1,000 stories from people speaking up for
the rights of prisoners and families to stay connected.
If you can’t make a call, there are other ways to help these organizations
efforts to reduce the cost for families to remain connected with their loved
ones behind bars.
One: Share your story. Fill
out this online postcard and we’ll submit your story to the Federal
Communications Commission. http://bit.ly/K9iPux (If you would
rather record your story call 877-518-0606)
Two: Tweet the postcard. Help
us get to our goal of 1,000 stories by sharing the postcard through social
media. Remember to use the hashtag #phonejustice.
Sample Tweet: We want #phonejustice for prisoners. Tell the FCC to address
the high cost of prison phone calls.
Three: Get organized. Download
this toolkit and start organizing in your community. http://bit.ly/K8BUy0
Four: Share this banner on Twitter and Facebook
Help celebrate Mother’s Day by sending positive messages to
the mothers, daughters and sisters behind bars. Sing a song, read a prayer,
speak from the heart and let the mothers behind bars in our nation’s prisons
know you’re thinking about them. Call to our toll-free 24/7 answering machine
now at 877-410-4863 to leave a recording we’ll that will be played over the air and give hope to women
behind bars.