Bianca Tylek

State's prison food contract canceled over nutritional deficiencies Oklahoma’s $74 million deal to privatize food service in state prisons was canceled because the selected vendor failed to meet nutritional standards. Aramark, the sole competing bidder, alleged that T...

Incarcerated people deserve real food–not the inedible, unhealthy meals dished out by million-dollar private corporations cutting corners while people suffer serious health problems. tinyurl.com/4mz5f6z6

Some GOOD NEWS for a change! This one is personal — it’s been a long time in the making. Thank you to all those who helped along the way.

"The Prison Industry maps the range of ways in which private corporations, often with their government partners, make money off incarceration. It further details the gross extraction of wealth from incarcerated people ... brutalized by over-policing, mass incarceration, and mass surveillance."

After a DUI Stop, He Vanished Into the ICE System Black immigrant families are being left in the dark as ICE moves loved ones from state to state.

“The ICE custody transportation industry is run by ‘a handful of large conglomerates notorious for varied types of abuses across the world,’” @biancatylek.bsky.social

People disappear, suffer harm, and even die while in ICE custody. worthrises.org/jointhefight

capitalbnews.org/black-immigr...

Barnstable County Jail Has Brought Health Care In-House - The Provincetown Independent PROVINCETOWN — When Barnstable County Sheriff Donna Buckley announced her campaign for that office in March 2022, she told the Independent that “the sheriff’s responsibility is not to do law […]

The state of correctional healthcare is in crisis with 3 major private providers filing for bankruptcy due to lawsuits in the past 2 yrs. It’s time we shift back to a public option.

Here’s one jail doing it after its provider filled only 20% of positions.
provincetownindependent.org/featured/202...

Wetwired Culture, control, and empire

Tune into @wetwired.bsky.social’s podcast featuring
@biancatylek.bsky.social as she discusses The Prison Industry book and how the carceral system profits from exploitation without delivering justice: bit.ly/4kt9d09

Here’s an excerpt from my book The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits. Get your copy for you and a friend today.

Worthrises.org/theprisonindustry

Geo Group extends executive chairman contract, raises bonuses for top officers By Investing.com Geo Group extends executive chairman contract, raises bonuses for top officers

The executives at the nation’s largest private prison operator, GEO Group, are wasting no time in upping compensation and cashing in on the immigration detention and deportation boom.

www.investing.com/news/sec-fil...

Today's decision is a shameful defense of industry profits and kowtowing to law enforcement propaganda. The rules were well reasoned and fair. And families are desperate for the relief they were designed to bring. Now they'll have to wait, and its unclear for how long.

Then, suddenly, with no notice or opportunity for public comment, the FCC, under Chair Carr's leadership, halts implementation. And we should expect it'll file an abeyance with the court to suspend the case while the rules go under review.

Over the last few months, industry players, a group of conservative state AGs, and the National Sheriffs Association have all been in to see the new FCC Chair and make their case for a reversal of the rules, desperate to protect their profits.

US Appeals Court Blocks Securus, Pay Tel Bids to Stall Prison Call Rate Caps A flood of litigation fighting impending FCC regulations has been filed by multiple private contractors and more than a dozen states.

The rules began to go into effect on a staggered basis in the fall, with the lion share taking effect between January 1, 2025 and April 1, 2026. Multiple efforts to delay implementation during the legal battle were denied by the FCC and the court. filtermag.org/us-appeals-c...

11 State Attorneys General Defend FCC’s Cap on Prison Phone Rates The FCC and allies will contend with a 14-state coalition opposing the rule.

A number of states and public interest groups, like @worthrises.bsky.social, backed the FCC in defending the rules.
broadbandbreakfast.com/11-state-att...

After passage, the industry sued the FCC, as was expected, claiming it went to far. This would've been the FCC's opportunity to abandon the rules (as it has previously), but it didn't. In April, the FCC filed a brief aggressively defending the new regulations.

Duckworth Applauds FCC for Unanimously Passing Final Rule to Implement Her Bipartisan Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act That Will Eliminate Unreasonable Prison Phone Rates and ... The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois

The final regulations were published in a 400+ page order and approved by the Commission by unanimous vote. FCC Chair Brendan Carr was among those who voted for the rules last year. www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-r...

Biden signs a bill to fight expensive prison phone call costs The legislation gives federal regulators greater authority to limit the costs of prison phone calls. Though rates differ by state, calls from prison cost on average $5 for a 30-minute phone call.

These rules were the result of a bipartisan Congressional mandate asserted with the passage of the Martha Wright Reed Act, which not only expanded the FCC's authority to regulate the correctional telecom industry but mandated it did so within 18-24 months. www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1...

The cornerstone of the new rules includes:
- New rate caps that more than halve current rate caps
- A prohibition on commissions paid to prisons and jails
- A prohibition on the pass through of surveillance costs to incarcerated people and their families

For context, the regulations in question were passed by the FCC last year, after more than a decade-long battle, to rein the predatory correctional telecom industry that has been preying on incarcerated people and their families for years.

www.fcc.gov/document/fcc...

This defies all logic, and I explain why below. But it does continue the wealth grab that defines the Trump Administration.

A thread.

Dark money ads target Kansas mayor after town pushed back against private prison • Kansas Reflector A PAC targeted Leavenworth’s mayor on social media in May for her “liberal agenda,” accusing her of holding back progress.

Politicians are being targeted for ensuring proper regulations on reopening detention centers like CoreCivic where people are suffering from abuse and neglect. kansasreflector.com/2025/06/16/d...

NYT vaguely describing Palestinian deaths while Haaretz describes “killing fields” of Israeli troops murdering people seeking aid.

See if you can spot the difference between New York Times propaganda and the Israeli press. I know it’s subtle, let me know if you can’t figure it out.

‘Ticking time bomb’: Ice detainee dies in transit as experts say more deaths likely Guardian reporting reveals confusing and contradictory events surrounding death of Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado

Abelardo is the 1st person in ICE custody to die in transit in 10 years. Families are demanding answers from the private prison, transportation contractor, and healthcare provider. Sadly, there will be more. I explain why in my new book: The Prison Industry.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Worth Rises — Prison Labor in Agriculture: People in prison are picking cotton on former plantations in dangerous conditions for no pay No image draws a more obvious connection between chattel slavery and mass incarceration in the United States than that of Black men toiling in fields under the watch of armed overseers on horseback at...

This Juneteenth, remember that slavery is still legal in the US. Just look on prison farms, often former plantations, where incarcerated people are still toiling in dangerous conditions for no pay. worthrises.org/blogpost/202...

Trump EPA Drops Case Against GEO Group Over Disinfectant Misuse in ICE Jail The complaint filed under the Biden administration alleged over 1,000 employee uses of the chemical without proper protection.

It is the EPA’s responsibility to protect against human rights violations, including hazardous chemicals being used as punishment. We cannot let GEO Group’s abuse in detention centers slide. bit.ly/4ndTLaP

YouTube video by Brad Lander for NYC Brad Lander: "I'll keep coming back to court, week after week"

Tonight, I'll go home and sleep in my bed. I have a lawyer, I'll get due process.

But Edgardo, whose arm was ripped from mine by ICE agents, has none of those things.

That's why I'll keep coming back to court, week after week, to make sure that people's rights are protected.

ALERT! No one is talking about the uprisings happening at private prisons across the country while Trump is expanding their use. Just this week there was one at a CoreCivic prison in TN and GEO Group detention center in NJ, both over appalling conditions. This is about to get a lot worse.

County’s fee for housing immigrants at CoreCivic facility doubles - Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... NATCHEZ — Adams County is in line to receive double the amount of money it has in the past per prisoner at the Adams County Correctional Center. The facility...

While protests rage across the country, some counties are cashing in on the violent ICE raids.

Adams County, MS just negotiated higher fees from a private prison operator for access to its intergovernmental agreement with ICE for the detention of immigrants.
www.natchezdemocrat.com/2025/06/03/c...

We talked with @biancatylek.bsky.social, founder and director of ‪@worthrises.bsky.social‬ about financial exploitation and slavery in prisons and her recent book, The Prison Industry – How It Works and Who Profits.

Listen wherever
pod.link/1593022493/e...

It’s been 2 months since The Prison Industry came out, and I’ve been on the road nearly the whole time getting out the word. Have you gotten your copy yet? Post a photo!

worthrises.org/theprisonindustry

Are the brands you buy profiting from prisons?
Through painstaking research that tracks and exposes the profiteers of the criminal justice establishment, the abolitionist organization @worthrises.bsky.social seeks to end the exploitation of incarcerated people and their families.