Securus Technologies is a prison communications firm. The company has been criticized for developing phone tracking technologies that can be used outside prisons and for charging very high rates for calls, in addition to pushing to mandate the removal of in-person meetings of inmates with their families. Securus is owned by Beverly Hills-based private equity firmPlatinum Equity.
History
Securus was founded as TZ Holdings Inc. in 1986 in Dallas, Texas. The company changed its name from TZ Holdings Inc. to Securus Technologies in April 2009. During the 2010s, Securus was one of a number of companies which provided telephone service to inmates in US prisons. Securus was partially acquired by ABRY Partners from Castle Harlan in 2013 for $640 million. The company was the target of a data breach of about 70 million records of phone calls in July 2015. Since its inception, Securus has acquired 20 government services, software-based businesses, technologies, patents and exclusive partner agreements. The company was acquired in 2017 by Beverly Hills-based private equity firm Platinum Equity, owned by billionaire Tom Gores. In 2019, Platinum Equity announced plans to reorganize the company as a more diverse technology company, and created Aventiv Technologies as Securus' new corporate parent.
Prices for calls vary greatly among institutions, with first-minute charges from over to 4 cents, and from over to 4 cents for subsequent minutes. Prices of out-of-state calls were capped by the FCC to around 21 cents per minute; however, instate rates at many jails and prisons continue to be much higher. In 2017, the company announced its Wireless Containment Solution, which was developed to prevent contraband cell phones from connecting to mobile networks. As of November 2017, the company reported that the Wireless Containment Solution system has blocked 1.7 million inmate calls from prisons. On May 10, 2018, The New York Times revealed that one of Securus' products can be used to track the location of almost any phone in the US within seconds. Senator Ron Wyden has sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission and telecommunications companies demanding answers on the controversial surveillance system. The prison phone industry has been criticized for charging high fees and profiting off of vulnerable inmates. In 2019, New York City passed a bill ensuring 21 minutes of free phone calls for all inmates in New York City jails; before the bill, the phone contract with Securus had generated $5 million in revenue for the city and $2.5 million for Securus.
