Investing in What Matters: Aventiv Technologies Dedicates Additional Resources towards Expanding and Improving Relationships with Those That Mean the Most

DALLAS, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Just six months since launching a transformation agenda under new CEO Dave Abel, Aventiv Technologies and its corrections-services subsidiary, Securus Technologies, today reported significant progress in accelerating an expansive, holistic reform of corporate policies and practices. 

Education, reentry and recidivism represent one of the key pillars in the transformation effort.  An additional 13,456 incarcerated students gained access to post-secondary educational programming through Securus' digital education platform since March alone, a critical connection to help improve recidivism rates. 

In addition to enrolling thousands for free educational programming, Aventiv deepened its commitment to supporting re-entry services and creating opportunities for the formerly incarcerated. For example, so far in 2020, the company has:

• Provided initial seed funding to help launch Freedom Rides, a non-profit that assists formerly incarcerated individuals in purchasing vehicles so they can safely travel to jobs or classes.
• Built upon the existing corporate job application that "bans the box" and broadened hiring practices by defining allowable types of felony convictions and specified roles to which limits apply.
• Signed the Society for Human Resource Management's Getting Talent Back to Work Pledge and 10% of new hires since January have prior records.

In addition to efforts centered around education, the organization also furthered its responsibility to execute against commitments made in January, which include:

• Accessibility and affordability:
  • Securus renegotiated contracts with 56 correctional agencies, reducing call rates that had previously exceeded national averages.
  • Securus began offering commission-free and agency-paid options for telephone calls to both existing and new institutional customers.
• Technology and Innovation:
  • Aventiv has invested more than $2.3 million in new infrastructure and the development of new technology including further strengthening cyber security measures.
• Transparency
  • The company initiated a process to develop a terms-of-use policy to memorialize comprehensive data privacy standards for its products. That policy will now be released by the end of 2020 due to COVID-19.
  • Aventiv commissioned a cost analysis by an independent third-party, which is on-track to be released by the end of 2020.
• Listening and responsiveness:
  • Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Aventiv leadership continued an ongoing series of listening sessions with advocates for the incarcerated, individuals impacted by incarceration, and correctional and communications experts. Stay-at-home orders severely limited in person access, and CEO Dave Abel continued holding virtual sessions continued throughout the second quarter.

"In January we said we were going to change the way this company operates, and make our services more affordable and accessible," said Dave Abel, President and CEO of Aventiv Technologies. "Since then we've made real progress toward that goal while also modifying our 2020 blueprint to heavily focus on providing supplementary support for our customers since the entire nation was jolted by the impact of COVID-19. The need for human connection - particularly during a pandemic - drove a shift in priority and we're proud of the efforts we have made to date.  We know there's more work to be done, and we'll continue to work closely with our agency partners to drive positive change in the correctional technology industry."

Against the backdrop of the devastating and wide-spread impact of COVID-19, organizations nationwide rethought operations, accessibility and introduce thoughtful approaches to supporting customer needs; especially those serving vulnerable communities such as the incarcerated.  Since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, Aventiv has worked with its partners across the United States to provide millions of credits for free e-messages as well as free and reduced rates for video chats and phone calls. To date the company has provided:

• Accommodations for 397 agencies at 737 distinct facilities.
• 22.4 million free call credits for incarcerated individuals and their families, resulting in 170.8 million free minutes of phone connections
• 4.9 million free video connections to friends and families of incarcerated individuals
• 10.6 million free JPay Stamps for electronic messaging

Aventiv Technologies launched in October 2019 as part of a corporate reorganization reflective of the company's progression with distinct business lines for government payments (AllPaid) and corrections services (Securus Technologies and JPay). Since being acquired by Platinum Equity the company has undergone substantial changes with a major emphasis on eliminating certain past practices, enhancing and expanding others, and transforming from a traditional corrections telecommunications service provider into a broad technology innovator.

To see a full list of Aventiv's commitments and ongoing updates on the company's progress, visit http://transformation.aventiv.com/.

ABOUT AVENTIV TECHNOLOGIES
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Aventiv Technologies serves more than 3,450 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies and over 1,100,000 incarcerated individuals across North America, Aventiv is committed to serve and connect by providing emergency response, incident management, public information, investigation, biometric analysis, communication, information management, inmate self-service, and monitoring products and services in order to make our world a safer place to live. For more information, please visit www.Aventiv.com. Aventiv is a portfolio company of Platinum Equity. Founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with a portfolio of approximately 40 operating companies that serve customers around the world.

SOURCE Securus Technologies

Related Links

http://www.Aventiv.com