Ameelio

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Ameelio is a technology non-profit which provides free communications and educational tools for incarcerated communities and their relatives. It is the first non-profit telecommunications company to provide free prison communication services in the United States. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Ameelio was co-founded in 2020 by two Yale students, Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa and Gabriel Saruhashi, to allow incarcerated people in the United States to access free communications services. [3] [4] [5] [6] Orchingwa and Saruhashi were motivated to found the organization because of the extremely high cost and inaccessibility of communications in prison, [7] [8] which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] At launch, it allowed users to send photos and physical print-outs of digital letters to inmates, [10] it later expanded its services to include teleconferencing. [11] The organization received funding from Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt, Vinod Khosla, Kevin P. Ryan, Rich Barton, Devin Wenig, and Jack Smith. [12] [13]

Ameelio currently supports free communications for incarcerated individuals and their families in the states of Iowa, Colorado, and Maine. [14] [15]

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References

  1. ↑ "Their App Sends Free Mail to Incarcerated People. Now They're Helping Prisoners Register to Vote". nextcity.org. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  2. ↑ "Ameelio wants to take on for-profit, prison-calling rackets after starting with free letters to inmates". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  3. ↑ "Sending a message". yalealumnimagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  4. ↑ Koldas, Kardelen (July 8, 2021). "Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa '14 offers sensible solutions to prison communications". Colby News.
  5. ↑ "The Most Creative People in Business 2021". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  6. ↑ Roose, Kevin (2021-12-27). "The 2021 Good Tech Awards". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  7. ↑ "Tech Company Aims to Disrupt Predatorial Prison Phone Industry". www.colorlines.com. 2021-02-17. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  8. ↑ Primack, Stef W. Kight, Dan (2019-06-08). "Private companies are making money off the prison system in every way imaginable". Axios. Retrieved 2022-02-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Canales, Katie. "An app will turn your digital message into a physical letter and send it to loved ones in prison for free as the pandemic bans in-person visits to jails". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  10. ↑ Chan, Rosalie (July 4, 2020). "Ameelio helps communicate with incarcerated loved ones for free". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  11. ↑ Zabbasajja, Jennifer (September 8, 2021). "Can a Nonprofit Disrupt the Pricey Prison Phone Industry?". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  12. ↑ Au-Yeung, Angel. "The Prison Communications Nonprofit Backed By Twitter's Jack Dorsey And Former Google Chief Eric Schmidt". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  13. ↑ "Annual ABE grant program supports 15 'boots-on-the-ground' projects". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  14. ↑ "Ameelio's free video calling service for inmates goes live at first facilities". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  15. ↑ "Cost of prison phone calls throwing families into debt". KMGH. 2021-09-22. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
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