People hoping to make phone calls or have video visits at the Farmville Detention Center here in Virginia or at other ICE facilities around the country begin with a toll-free call to a firm called Telmate and its service, GettingOut.com.
“Thank you for calling Telmate!”
Using the company’s phone tree, you can get information in English, Spanish or French, create an account, deposit money and accept certain terms.
“Be informed that your continued use of Telmate’s products and services shall constitute acceptance of Telmate’s terms of use and privacy statement, which are available at GettingOut.com.”
The privacy policy and terms of use total 32 pages, and consumers have no real choice.If they don’t agree, they can’t use the service. Ironically, the home page for GettingOut.com informs users right away that in August of 2020, hackers accessed the personal information for thousands of its customers.
But back to the phone, where users are invited to choose from nine different options.
“For deposits, press one. For visitation, press two, for account information, press three.”
The last one is customer service, but callers can’t always get through.
“To speak to a customer service representative, press zero.”
“Thank you for using Legacy Long Distance.”
(call is disconnected, and callers hear a busy signal.)
This is especially troubling, since the company warns that refunds can only be secured by calling this toll-free number. Once they are released, former prisoners cannot request remaining funds by mail, and it will take 8-10 weeks to issue a check. If you don’t ask for your money within six months, Telmate gets to keep the cash.
“Please be advised, once created your Friends and Family account will become inactive after 180 days of inactivity," says the phone tree. "Upon becoming inactive, any remaining funds will be forfeited.”
Now imagine the challenge to a detainee deported to South Sudan, Moldova, Uganda or Eswatini -- a person who may not speak English, Spanish or French and might not even have a cell phone .Assuming that individual can get through to customer service, they may not have a permanent mailing address or access to banking services, and few banks overseas will accept a check issued in the U.S.
Telmate is part of a Virginia-based conglomerate known as ViaPath, which is owned by American Securities – a private equity firm that buys ownership stakes in other companies to restructure, grow and eventually sell them for a profit.
“They typically hold these companies for 5-7 years, then sell them either to another private equity firm, or they take the company public.”
That’s Azani Creeks who works for a non-profit called the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.She says these companies are all about making money with no commitment to serving the public.There are few government regulations of private equity, and Creeks says those that provide telecomm services to prisons have fought efforts to limit what they can charge.
“You know in 2024 the FCC ruled to implement these rate caps on phone and video messaging, and these companies lobbied very hard, filed lawsuits against the FCC and were able to get those rate caps increased.”
But Creeks says American workers may have some influence when it comes to private equity.
“Folks should know that their pensions are invested in these companies, right?Our retirement dollars go to these firms who are then using it to extract money from vulnerable populations who don’t have any other options, right?It’s not like the folks inside can choose which service to use.”
We asked ViaPath to answer questions about its service, but the company declined. A federal agency that used to have oversight – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – was crippled by Trump administration budget cuts.
