User:Rosino9618/sandbox

Research has shown that maintaining contact with family and loved ones can reduce prisoner recidivism rates.

A contemporary organization based on social entrepreneurship is Pigeonly. Pigeonly is a startup communication service and location database for prison inmates, founded in 2013 by Frederick Hutson and Alfonzo Brooks and based in Las Vegas, NV. Frederick Hutson came up with the idea for Pigeonly after serving 51 months in prisonon federal charges of drug trafficking for smuggling marijuana across borders via postal services. While in prison, Hutson noticed inefficiency and high costs in the prison system's communication services: at the time of his incarceration, phone calls for prisoners cost approximately 88 cents per minute, or $70 for three-hundred minutes. Pigeonly collaborated with the NewMe Accelerator in 2013, which led to a significant expansion of the company’s capabilities as well as receiving $2 million in seed money from investors. During that time Pigeonly collaborated with the software company Freelancer.com, which merged all public records on criminal charges and court information to create Pigeonly's inmate database Haystac. Studies have shown that staying in contact with family members reduces prison recidivism rates but high costs, security procedures, and the resulting infrequency of contact make this a challenge. Pigeonly streamlines these processes through its multiple services, locating prisoners and ensuring that all contact follows the Federal Bureau of Prisons' guidelines. Individuals use Pigeonly's data program of public records, Haystac, to locate prison inmates by name. After locating an inmate individuals can contact them using any of Pigeonly's services, which follow the county/state's respective guidelines (which are often unknown to individuals contacting the inmates): "Voice" provides low-cost phone calls through the use of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol); "Photos" prints photographs from a digital file, and sends them according to the prison's guidelines; "Letters" sends written messages in accordance with prison guidelines; "Greetings" provides and sends stock cards "for any occasion"; "Print" allows users to share content off the internet; and the mobile application "Prison Wives" is for spouses and significant others of prisoners.

Through the use of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), Pigeonly can supply low-cost phone calls between inmates and outside persons.