An AI Model from Securus Aims to Expand Phone Call Monitoring
In 2023, prison telecom company Securus Technologies began building AI tools using its expansive database of prisoners’ recorded phone calls. The idea was to create an AI model that could not only monitor live prison phone calls but actively detect discussion of potential criminal activity. As reported by the MIT Technology Review, one of these models was developed based off of seven years of calls in Texas prisons; and, over the past year, a pilot version of a broader model is being tested at locations that the company refuses to divulge.
The model can be used to analyze video calls, text messages, and emails, according to Securus president Kevin Elder. That data would then be flagged for human agents to choose whether or not to act upon it. In what seems like a dystopian scenario, the AI tools are being designed to intercept a crime, such as smuggling contraband inside of a facility, before it happens. “We can point that large language model at an entire treasure trove [of data],” Elder told MIT Technology Review, “to detect and understand when crimes are being thought about or contemplated, so that you’re catching it much earlier in the cycle.”
While prisoners are notified that their phone conversations are recorded, they are likely not aware that those conversations could be used to train an AI model. This lack of knowledge brings up issues of consent, especially since phone calls are often the only way for prisoners to communicate with their families. Bianca Tylek, executive director of the prison rights group Worth Rises, also highlighted that Securus was not only not “compensating [prisoners] for the use of their data,” but “actually charging them while collecting their data.”
The news of Securus advancing its AI model comes as regulations that protect prisoners from predatory practices by telecom companies face roll backs. In June of this year, the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC)—led by Brendan Carr, an appointee of Pres. Donald Trump (R)—announced that it was postponing a 2024 reform that capped phone rates at a significantly lower rate. [See: PLN, Aug. 2025, p. 19.] Then, on October 28, the FCC voted to increase those rate caps by as much as 83% in comparison to the initial 2024 reform (a 6 cents per minute rate in state prisons, for example, went up to 11 cents per minute).
Although the new caps have not yet taken effect, the adjusted policy allows companies like Securus to pass on security costs associated with recording and monitoring phone calls to prisoners and detainees. What this shift suggests is that the FCC wants incarcerated individuals and their families to subsidize telecom companies as they expand AI surveillance efforts.
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