PORTLAND, Ore. – Calling Mom on Mother's Day this weekend will be an expensive proposition if you're in prison. In Oregon, people who are incarcerated pay a service charge of $2.64 for local calls - and for long distance, $3.95 plus 69 to 89 cents per minute. Attorney Lee Petro, an expert on prison telephone service contracts, says jails and prisons have deals with service providers that benefit the companies and give commissions or "kickbacks" to state and county governments - while making it harder for family members to afford to stay in touch.
"You know it's a proven fact, over and over again, that the level of contact they had while they were in prison - with their family and their social network - renders their reentry into society more beneficial, more stable, and they are less likely to commit crime down the line."
Last year, Oregon's prison phone service provider, Value-Added Communications of Texas, was caught violating its contract by raising rates without the required 30-day notice. The rates were reduced the same week. The company has since been acquired by Global Tel-Link of Alabama, the nation's largest provider.
The Oregon Department of Corrections says money it gets from the contract is part of a $9.9 million "Inmate Welfare Fund," and is used on programs that it says "directly benefit inmates."
Steven Renderos with the Center for Media Justice is an organizer of a Mother's Day of Action today. On the website PhoneJustice.org, his group is collecting stories about prisoners and families affected by the high-cost phone calls.
"It's an opportunity to elevate stories from families, from people who have loved ones behind bars. And we're going to send those stories directly to the FCC, because the Federal Communications Commission has a direct role to play in addressing the rates of phone calls within prisons."
Historically, they've been rationalized by the need to monitor jailhouse calls. Critics of the contract system say technology has brought those costs down, but inmates and their families continue to pay higher prices to stay in contact.
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The Missouri Broadcasters Association is among the parties filing a lawsuit, claiming a state law that requires extensive redactions in court documents is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson City, challenges a law passed last year that mandates attorneys and judicial officers redact the names of all witnesses and victims in lawsuits and criminal proceedings.
Dave Roland, president and CEO of the Freedom Center of Missouri, represents the plaintiffs. He said these restrictions severely limit the news media's ability to effectively monitor the judicial system - which in turn harms the public. He added the law also has cost implications.
"The redaction requirement dramatically increases the cost of litigation, such that it is putting certain types of legal actions and certain motions beyond the financial capacity of a number of litigants," he said.
Roland added the plaintiffs agree that in some situations - involving children, or sexual assault - names should be kept private. But they contend a blanket law to redact all names violates both the Missouri and U.S. Constitutions.
The bill was spearheaded by Rep. Justin Hicks, R-St. Louis. A hearing date for the case has not yet been set.
Chad Mahoney, president and CEO the Missouri Broadcasters Association, voiced concerns about the law's impact on journalists' ability to report accurately.
"We support protecting those who need to be protected for their safety, but we think this goes way too far. It's making it very difficult for journalists to do their jobs and to fully inform the public," he continued.
Mahoney said historically, the courts have been the most open and transparent branch of government, and that has changed with some of these recent actions.
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O.J. Simpson's death has the nation looking back on the infamous murder trial that resulted in his acquittal. Experts say one of the lasting impacts is news coverage and how people consume it.
The lengthy trial proceedings from the mid-1990s were televised, setting a pathway for cameras in the courtroom.
Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism, said it also ushered in a cottage industry of pundits brought in to analyze the events of each day. That made it easier for people to get a recap during a 24-hour news cycle, but she added that there was a drawback to getting so much information through analysis.
"It also meant that people could suspend their critical thinking, to a certain extent," she said, "and I believe we're still seeing that today. The rise of social media has only made it easier."
However, she said it did expose issues with how criminal cases are handled, and viewers were able to see it firsthand. Given how the accessibility of information has exploded since the trial, Kirtley said, news consumers can't lose sight of the need to examine where they're getting it from. That includes whether the source is producing the news themselves, and if the details are being vetted.
Tessa Jolls, president and CEO of the Center for Media Literacy, said the trial firmly established entertainment as a core element of news coverage, making it profitable. She said outlets still have to reel people in with this approach to survive in a challenging landscape, but added that a sensationalized case such as this one sometimes helps with engagement in a positive way.
"They were seeing what the news organizations chose to show, and that gave people a chance to talk to each other and compare notes," she said. "In that sense, I think people probably did become savvier."
The trial also touched on racial issues and domestic violence, and Jolls said it was natural for people to have strong emotions about the developments. But she noted that it serves as a reminder for audiences to not let their gut feelings cloud how they weigh the facts presented to them.
"We need to see that our emotions are definitely present and that they may be swaying our thinking," she said, "and so, it's important to ask questions, to be skeptical."
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Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos.
The Innovation and Technology Committee is planning to vote on the Taylor Swift Act, a bill aiming to make it illegal to publish or threaten to publish AI-generated sexually explicit images of people.
Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, authored the bill and said it is important to be proactive in protecting ordinary citizens.
"They were able to take it down for her," Schwadron acknowledged. "However, common Missourians would not have the same protections afforded to her. Not everyone is Taylor Swift."
The bill would allow victims of the fake image attacks to sue the creator in civil court and recover the offending images. Rep. Bridgette Walsh, D-St. Louis, also supports the bill and said it is necessary in this day and age, given how easy videos and images are to access and create.
Schwadron noted while they will need to learn how to track items originating from the dark web, he is optimistic the legislation will cover most common offenses.
"The cases that we are seeing across the country of classmates that are being attacked by other classmates of theirs that is creating these images and it's affecting young girls and even boys and those are a lot easier to track when they're being shared from phone to phone," Schwadron explained.
Schwadron added the name "Taylor Swift Act" was fitting due to her ties with the state of Missouri and her recent ordeal with explicit deepfakes.
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