Heads Up, Sesame Street Is Part of the Prison Industrial Complex Now
Jezebel, October 1, 2021: Heads Up, Sesame Street Is Part of the Prison Industrial Complex Now
“Sesame Street is officially in its flop era. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the long-running educational children’s program, has joined forces with Global Tel Link, a telecommunications company that has a virtual monopoly on inmate phone calls in the United States. According to a press release, GTL announced a grant to Sesame Workshop to “create new Coping with Incarceration materials for children dealing with parental incarceration.”
Sesame Street has tackled incarceration on its television show and through Sesame Street In Communities, a program that provides helpful learning material for children going through everything from autism and asthma to divorce and violence. But partnering up with GTL to provide support to children of incarcerated parents is like teaming up with The Dursleys to provide support to orphans: GTL’s entire business model exploits families dealing with incarceration.”
Additional reading:
Vice, September 9, 2021: Prison Company Patents VR to Give Inmates Brief Taste of Freedom
Biometric Update, September 14, 2021: Biometrics in the big house: Surveillance and new revenue
BloombergCityLab, September 8, 2021: Can a Nonprofit Disrupt the Pricey Prison Phone Industry?
