The Hidden Prison Economy: How Phone Calls, Tablets, and Commissary Cost Michigan Families Millions

The Digital Communication Market

Michigan prisons have transitioned to tablet-based communications, operated primarily by JPay, a subsidiary of Securus Technologies. The tablets are framed as educational and communication tools. The revenue model is built around metered access: families purchase digital stamps to send messages, pay separately for music and video content, and buy credits for video calls. The cost of maintaining contact through a prison tablet system can reach hundreds of dollars annually for a family with limited income.

Phone Rates and the Site Commission Structure

Michigan has historically ranked among the states with higher prison phone rates, driven by site commission arrangements — contractual provisions requiring providers like ViaPath (formerly GTL) to pay a percentage of call revenue back to the state or facility in exchange for exclusive access to the inmate calling market. The arrangement creates a structural incentive for the state to allow higher rates, because higher rates generate larger commission payments.

The Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, signed in late 2022 and implemented through the FCC during 2024–2025, established federal rate caps on interstate and intrastate calls from correctional facilities. The reform reduced costs in some categories. The exclusive contract structure that eliminates family choice, and the state’s financial stake in the revenue generated by that structure, remains in place.

Food Service: The Aramark and Trinity Record

In the mid-2010s, Michigan transferred prison food service to private contractors, first Aramark and later Trinity Services Group. The transitions produced documented problems: reports of inadequate portions, food quality failures, and contract compliance issues. Michigan subsequently returned to a state-run food service model for many facilities to regain direct control over quality and safety standards.

Private vendors continue to supply raw goods and manage commissary services — the internal store where incarcerated people purchase hygiene items and supplemental food. Commissary prices are set by the vendor within the contract terms and often rise faster than general inflation, against wages that in Michigan typically measure in cents per hour.

Campaign Finance and Contract Renewal

The contracts that give these companies exclusive access to Michigan’s correctional population are renewed through the state’s appropriations and procurement processes. Campaign finance data from the Michigan Secretary of State and OpenSecrets shows contributions from PACs and executives associated with industries connected to correctional communications and food service vendors directed toward members of the Appropriations Committees — the legislators who determine how the state spends money on correctional contracts.

The relationship between vendor contributions and contract control does not require demonstrated quid pro quo to raise structural concerns. When a company’s primary market is a state government contract, and that company directs political contributions toward the legislators who control contract decisions, the incentive structure operates on access regardless of explicit coordination.

Why Family Connection Matters

Research on recidivism consistently identifies family connection as a protective factor — incarcerated people who maintain contact with family members show better reintegration outcomes. When that contact is priced as a revenue opportunity rather than structured as a public interest, the system creates a financial barrier to the very relationships that research identifies as reducing future harm. The cost is borne by families who are already absorbing the economic consequences of a household member’s incarceration. The revenue flows to private vendors and, through site commissions, back to the state that imposed the sentence.