Help MediaJustice and grassroots organizers fight for a future where we are all connected, represented, and free.

Dear Friend,

In some states, it still costs as much as $24 for a 15-minute phone call to a local jail — and these astronomical bills are most often being paid by Black and brown families already living on low incomes. The connection between these high costs and the Federal Communications Commission isn’t an obvious one, but the basic need to communicate with a loved one drove one Black woman to research and lead a decades-long campaign for government regulation of the predatory contracts between phone companies and prisons.[1,2]

Because of our donors, MediaJustice has been able to champion Mrs. Martha Wright-Reed’s fight for justice throughout the last decade ([link removed]) . The road has been bumpy: in 2013, due to our coalition's advocacy, the FCC capped rates for interstate calls to prisons, but since that landmark victory, attempts to lower the cost of local calls have been consistently halted by private phone companies. In 2019, MediaJustice and our allies pushed for the introduction of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, introduced by Senator Tammy Duckworth, which would affirm the FCC’s authority to regulate those local calls.
Mrs. Wright-Reed’s grandson, Ulandis Forte, poses with Sen. Duckworth on the day the bill was introduced. When the bill was announced, Team MediaJustice was there with Ulandis Forte, the grandson who was the motivation for Wright-Reed’s twenty years of organizing and is now an advocate himself.

Our commitment to grassroots activism means much of our work starts with a story just like this one. Our prison phone justice campaign showcases what MediaJustice does best: amplifying voices of organizers on the ground, connecting the dots between individual barriers and structural inequities, building powerful coalitions, and bringing impacted people of color face-to-face with those in charge of our media and technology systems. In 2020, as we continue to face rising authoritarianism and new threats to our ability to communicate, we will continue to lead by centering the most vulnerable people of color.

Support MediaJustice and grassroots activists building on the legacy of Mrs. Wright-Reed in 2020 by making a year-end donation today! ([link removed])

Sincerely,

Myaisha and the rest of Team MediaJustice

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Sources:
1. State of Phone Justice - Prison Policy Initiative ([link removed])
2. Prison Phone Justice is a Gender Justice Issue: The Legacy of Mrs. Martha Wright-Reed - MediaJustice ([link removed])

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