Four men detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Georgia used the facility's own video-calling software, GettingOut, to record a five-minute video exposing conditions inside. The men, who earn $1 a day in the facility's work program, said that wage is just enough for a 10-minute phone call. After the video was released, all four were placed in segregation, according to an immigration attorney involved in the Shut Down Folkston campaign. Since then, 45 detainees have written an open letter detailing conditions, and an estimated 73 detainees have joined a hunger strike.
The video highlights the business model behind immigrant detention. Folkston is owned and operated by GEO Group, a publicly traded company that received more than $1.5 million a month to run the facility and has a guaranteed minimum occupancy of 544 of its 780 beds. GEO's stock jumped more than 75% after Trump's reelection, and the company donated $1.4 million to a Trump super PAC in July, shortly after receiving $165 million in government contracts.
Communications at Folkston run through Telmate's GettingOut software, owned by ViaPath Technologies, which is backed by private equity. The FCC capped inmate calling rates in 2024 at 11 to 25 cents per minute, but in 2025 it voted to raise those caps by up to 83%. Detainees can also lose deposited funds after 180 days of account inactivity, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau previously ordered Tel*Link to pay $3 million for illegally freezing and draining incarcerated people's accounts.