science

Securus Technologies

Securus Technologies is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Securus Technologies rather than just read about it. In short: Securus Technologies is a technology communications firm serving prisons across the United States. The company has faced criticism over phone call pricing, data security, monopoly and product innovation.

Key takeaways

Securus Technologies belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Securus Technologies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Securus Technologies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Securus Technologies is a technology communications firm serving prisons across the United States. The company has faced criticism over phone call pricing, data security, monopoly and product innovation.

History Securus was founded as TZ Holdings Inc. in 1986 in Dallas, Texas. In April 2009, the company changed its name from TZ Holdings Inc. to Securus Technologies. During the 2010s, Securus was one of a number of companies which provided telephone service to inmates in US prisons. In 2013, Securus was partially acquired by ABRY Partners from Castle Harlan for $640 million. In July 2015, the company was the target of a data breach of about 70 million records of phone calls. Also in 2015, Securus Technologies acquired JPay, a technology company that provided electronic payment, communication, and media services in more than 33 state prison systems. By 2016, Securus acquired 20 government services, software-based businesses, technologies, patents and exclusive partner agreements. In 2017, the company was acquired by Beverly Hills-based private equity firm Platinum Equity, owned by billionaire Tom Gores. In 2019, Platinum Equity announced plans to reorganize the company as a more diverse technology company, and created Aventiv Technologies as Securus' new corporate parent. In mid-January 2020, Aventiv Technologies named Dave Abel as its president and CEO. Abel committed to reform corporate policies and practices, acknowledging the company "faced criticism in the past over pricing, data security, product innovation and other issues." In April 2025, Aventiv Technologies announced an agreement between Platinum Equity and financial stakeholders to invest $360 million in exchange for equity in the company.

Operations Securus is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with regional offices located in Carrollton, Texas, Miramar, Missouri, and Houston, Texas. As of 2015, the company employed approximately 1,600 people and was reported to have contracts with 2,600 correctional facilities in the United States. By the end of 2021, Aventiv Technologies deployed over 400,000 tablet devices to incarcerated individuals including 100,000 tablets that Securus Technologies made available to incarcerated individuals in Texas for free, with additional content expected to cover the costs.

Communication costs Prices for calls vary greatly among institutions, with first-minute charges from over US$5 to 4 cents, and from over US$1 to 4 cents for subsequent minutes. Prices of out-of-state calls were capped by the FCC to around 21 cents per minute; however, instate rates at many jails and prisons continue to be much higher. On December 8, 2021, Aventiv Technologies announced that the average per minute cost of calls made by incarcerated individuals with Aventiv technology was reduced from $0.15 per minute to a record-low $0.13 per minute. In 2017, the company announced its Wireless Containment Solution, which was developed to prevent contraband cell phones from connecting to mobile networks. As of November 2017, the company reported that the Wireless Containment Solution system has blocked 1.7 million inmate calls from prisons. In 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission capped the calling rates at detention facilities in the state at $0.07 per minute.

Criticism and controversy In 2015, Securus aggressively lobbied to strike down Federal Communications Commission intervention regarding pricing regulation for inmate communications. On May 10, 2018, The New York Times revealed that one of Securus' products can be used to track the location of almost any phone in the US within seconds. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and telecommunications companies demanding answers on the controversial surveillance system. In June, 2022, a US Marshal was indicted by the Department of Justice for abusing the product to track people he knew, uploading blank documents and pretending he had authority to track people he had personal relationships with and their spouses. Securus responded to the indictment that they had "discontinued the tool more than four years ago and permanently shut it off. The prison phone industry has been criticized for charging high fees and profiting off of vulnerable inmates. In 2019, New York City passed a bill ensuring 21 minutes of free phone calls for all inmates in New York City jails; before the bill, the phone contract with Securus had generated $5 million in revenue for the city and $2.5 million for Securus. In 2015, Securus fees were the following:

Around 10% for bank transfer Between $0.35 and $0.50 for "virtual stamps" per page of email. Around $20 per hour for video chat In 2019, Securus was found to covertly record and fingerprint inmates' and their correspondents voices by monitoring phone calls, to automatically flag the "suspicious" ones. Securus did not respond to a request for comment on how it defined “suspicious.” In some states, enrollment in the voice recognition program is mandatory to be able to make calls. Voice prints produced by the program are permanently archived at Securus’s facility in Texas. In 2024, Securus faced a class action lawsuit with the plaintiffs claiming that the company engaged in a "quid pro quo kickback scheme" with county jails in Michigan which banned in-person visits in order to maximize revenue from voice and video calls. In August 2024, the lawsuit was dismissed by Circuit Judge Michael West stating, "no constitutional rights are implicated in this case, fundamental or otherwise."

See also Managed access (corrections) Inmate telephone system

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Securus Technologies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Securus Technologies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Securus Technologies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Securus Technologies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Securus Technologies

In research: Securus Technologies appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Securus Technologies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Securus Technologies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1986 establishments in Texas, 2017 mergers and acquisitions, Companies based in Dallas, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Securus Technologies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Securus Technologies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Securus Technologies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Securus Technologies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Securus Technologies in simple terms?

Why does Securus Technologies matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Securus Technologies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Securus Technologies.