In this June 26, 2014 file photo, an inmate uses a phone at the Cook County Jail in Chicago

When Prison Is Also Your Bank

The Brian Lehrer Show | Mar 26, 2021

Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry, asking: who profits when people get put away? We're previewing those discussions with a weekly segment here on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Bianca Tylek, Worth Rises’s executive director, and Paul Wright, founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center, and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), explain how private companies that contract with jails and prisons can make money by offering financial services to incarcerated people who don’t have other choices. 

EVENT, 7pm: Sign up for Tuesday's live virtual panel discussion HERE.

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