Alyssa Briody, Senior Staff Attorney in the Civil Rights and Law Reform Unit, testified before The New York City Council Committees on Contract and Criminal Justice regarding the city’s contracted jail services.

"Despite the Department claiming they lack human and financial resources, DOC continues to spend millions of dollars on pervasive corporate surveillance products that do not enhance jail safety. Since 2014, DOC has worked with Securus Technologies to transform its phone system into a vast and interconnected mass surveillance system that collects and databases biometric and other personal data not only from those detained in our city jails, but also their families, communities, and advocates."

...

"The time for New York City to get out of business with predatory surveillance phone and technology companies like Securus is now. Our community’s data should be returned from Securus. Neither our Constitutional rights nor our dignity, privacy, and intimacy should be for sale in our city. New Yorkers deserve more."

Read the full testimony here.