The Dane County Board is slated to take action tomorrow on a proposed five-year contract with Smart Communications. Based in Florida, the third-party contractor turns a profit by administering incarcerated people’s phone calls, emails, and text messages.
Their initial pitch to Dane County included mail scanning, a practice that eliminates physical mail and fully digitizes incarcerated people’s access to the outside world.
County supervisors were slated to vote on Smart’s proposed contract at the start of this month. But they decided to hit pause following public opposition, an unsuccessful op-ed campaign, and a last-minute amendment…