Sesame Street joins forces with the "prison industrial complex"

Jezebel

Global Tel Link (GTL), a telecommunications company that has a virtual monopoly on inmate phone calls in the United States, announced it is partnering with Sesame Workshop on a grant to “create new Coping with Incarceration materials for children dealing with parental incarceration.” As Jezebel's Ashley Reese points out, "Sesame Street has tackled incarceration on its television show and through Sesame Street In Communities, a program that provides helpful learning material for children going through everything from autism and asthma to divorce and violence. But partnering up with GTL to provide support to children of incarcerated parents is like teaming up with The Dursleys to provide support to orphans: GTL’s entire business model exploits families dealing with incarceration...GTL is complicit in some of the most ghoulish prison practices. Most notably, charging astronomical rates for prison phone calls."