Ameelio

The Problem
Mass incarceration is expensive ($182B spent annually), destructive (113M U.S. adults impacted), and ineffective (55% recidivism within three years). Decades of research show that sustained contact between an incarcerated person and their loved ones can reduce recidivism rates by as much as 56%. A $3B telecom duopoly presently dominates this market, generating obscene profits by charging families extortionate prices — with rates as steep as $25 per 15-minute call and $1.50 per email — to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones. The cost of communication drives families apart, makes connection more difficult, and forces one in three families with incarcerated loved ones into debt.

The Solution
Ameelio is fundamentally transforming a broken prison system that thrives on poverty. An estimated 50% of incarcerated persons had no earnings in the eight years leading up to their incarceration, and in the year immediately preceding, that percentage jumps to 80%. As a result, Ameelio recognizes that sustainable decarceration is only possible if they provide the incarcerated with the vital resources and pathways (like educational equity, economic mobility, and societal support) they lacked before incarceration. This informed approach to decarceration makes Ameelio one of the boldest and most innovative organizations in criminal justice reform.

By divorcing profit and incarceration and introducing high-quality and free technology to corrections, Ameelio is democratizing access to critical resources that have been proven to positively transform the lives of the incarcerated while increasing reentry success. Additionally, Ameelio leverages a digital ecosystem to combat mass incarceration. Using their free-to-use communication and learning management platform, individuals sustain contact with critical connections in the outside world, including their families, legal representation, and other social services. This empowers individuals to visualize an alternative future. Ameelio’s solution provides multiple benefits, including liberating families from financial exploitation for accessing a basic service.

In the next three years, Ameelio aims to provide their SaaS platform to 14 state prison systems, effectively serving 1M justice-impacted Americans (240K incarcerated persons a year directly and an additional 730K members of their families), amounting to 20% of the entire U.S. state prison population.