Ameelio is a technology non-profit which provides free communications and educational tools for incarcerated communities and their relatives. It is the first non-profit telecommunications company to provide free prison communication services in the United States. [1] [2]
Ameelio was co-founded in 2020 by two Yale students, Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa and Gabriel Saruhashi, to allow incarcerated people in the United States to access free communications services. [3] [4] [5] [6] Orchingwa and Saruhashi were motivated to found the organization because of the extremely high cost and inaccessibility of communications in prison, [7] [8] which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] At launch, it allowed users to send photos and physical print-outs of digital letters to inmates, [10] it later expanded its services to include teleconferencing. [11] The organization received funding from Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt, Vinod Khosla, Kevin P. Ryan, Rich Barton, Devin Wenig, and Jack Smith. [12] [13]
Ameelio currently supports free communications for incarcerated individuals and their families in the states of Iowa, Colorado, and Maine. [14] [15]
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cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
Ameelio is a technology non-profit which provides free communications and educational tools for incarcerated communities and their relatives. It is the first non-profit telecommunications company to provide free prison communication services in the United States. [1] [2]
Ameelio was co-founded in 2020 by two Yale students, Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa and Gabriel Saruhashi, to allow incarcerated people in the United States to access free communications services. [3] [4] [5] [6] Orchingwa and Saruhashi were motivated to found the organization because of the extremely high cost and inaccessibility of communications in prison, [7] [8] which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] At launch, it allowed users to send photos and physical print-outs of digital letters to inmates, [10] it later expanded its services to include teleconferencing. [11] The organization received funding from Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt, Vinod Khosla, Kevin P. Ryan, Rich Barton, Devin Wenig, and Jack Smith. [12] [13]
Ameelio currently supports free communications for incarcerated individuals and their families in the states of Iowa, Colorado, and Maine. [14] [15]
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)