# James O’Donnell reports in MIT Technology Review on AI scanning prisoners’ communications [Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/james-o-donnell-reports-in-mit-technology-review-on-ai-scanning-567f3d5e) Published December 1, 2025, James O’Donnell’s MIT Technology Review newsletter reports that Securus Technologies is piloting an AI model to scan prisoners’ calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. Securus president Kevin Elder told the publication that the company trained models on recorded calls, including calls from the Texas prison system, and is working on models for other states and counties. The newsletter does not report whether the pilot has predicted or prevented crimes. Prisoner rights advocates say the system enables invasive surveillance, while courts have specified few limits to that power. The concern is not only what the model can detect, but how broadly prison communications may be monitored and what limits govern that monitoring. The newsletter leaves unclear what safeguards apply to the pilot and how its predictions are used. Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims. ## Original source MIT Technology Review · Article Original source date: Dec 1, 2025 (2025-12-01T13:10:00Z). Date basis: Date from the publisher’s own records, through its API. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-09T20:53:23.668Z. First observed: 2026-11-03T02:57:55.227Z. Retrieved: 2026-11-03T02:59:23.523Z. - [The Download: spotting crimes in prisoners’ phone calls, and nominate an Innovator Under 35](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Limits The newsletter does not report whether the pilot has predicted or prevented crimes, what safeguards apply, or how its predictions are used. Text as retrieved on November 3, 2026; originally published December 1, 2025. ## Open question What limits, if any, govern Securus’s scanning of prisoners’ communications, and how are predictions from the pilot used? ## Source-stated Securus is piloting an AI model to scan prisoners’ communications in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. > is now piloting that model to scan their calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Source-stated Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review that Securus trained AI models using recorded calls and is developing models for other jurisdictions. > Securus Technologies president Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review that the company began building its AI tools in 2023, using its massive database of recorded calls to train AI models - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Source-stated Prisoner rights advocates say the system enables invasive surveillance, and courts have specified few limits to this power. > prisoner rights advocates say that the new AI system enables a system of invasive surveillance, and courts have specified few limits to this power. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Source and contributor context MIT Technology Review · Publisher The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred. ## Source media Media retrieval status: unchecked. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: ba9be736-2167-2e1f-eef2-568d7892245b. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-09T20:49:01.377Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge\_admitted\_by\_model, second\_opinion\_categorical. Observation: a2854deb475d06fee65e49354dd9a93cafe0e68dac0eb43e24a1399fc5e9a038. Source text hash: 41bc36e4ba3eabc8368441efa26c2023a112477963a57b876fd3dd383b7f854a. ## Revision and source-check history ### Version 1 — 2026-11-09T20:53:23.668Z Published December 1, 2025, James O’Donnell’s MIT Technology Review newsletter reports that Securus Technologies is piloting an AI model to scan prisoners’ calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. Securus president Kevin Elder told the publication that the company trained models on recorded calls, including calls from the Texas prison system, and is working on models for other states and counties. The newsletter does not report whether the pilot has predicted or prevented crimes. Prisoner rights advocates say the system enables invasive surveillance, while courts have specified few limits to that power. The concern is not only what the model can detect, but how broadly prison communications may be monitored and what limits govern that monitoring. The newsletter leaves unclear what safeguards apply to the pilot and how its predictions are used. ## Original source MIT Technology Review · Article Original source date: Dec 1, 2025 (2025-12-01T13:10:00Z). Date basis: Date from the publisher’s own records, through its API. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-09T20:53:23.668Z. First observed: 2026-11-03T02:57:55.227Z. Retrieved: 2026-11-03T02:59:23.523Z. - [The Download: spotting crimes in prisoners’ phone calls, and nominate an Innovator Under 35](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Limits The newsletter does not report whether the pilot has predicted or prevented crimes, what safeguards apply, or how its predictions are used. Text as retrieved on November 3, 2026; originally published December 1, 2025. ## Open question What limits, if any, govern Securus’s scanning of prisoners’ communications, and how are predictions from the pilot used? ## Source-stated Securus is piloting an AI model to scan prisoners’ communications in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. > is now piloting that model to scan their calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Source-stated Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review that Securus trained AI models using recorded calls and is developing models for other jurisdictions. > Securus Technologies president Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review that the company began building its AI tools in 2023, using its massive database of recorded calls to train AI models - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Source-stated Prisoner rights advocates say the system enables invasive surveillance, and courts have specified few limits to this power. > prisoner rights advocates say that the new AI system enables a system of invasive surveillance, and courts have specified few limits to this power. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1128615/the-download-spotting-crimes-in-prisoners-phone-calls-and-nominate-an-innovator-under-35/) ## Source and contributor context MIT Technology Review · Publisher The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred. ## Source media Media retrieval status: unchecked. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: ba9be736-2167-2e1f-eef2-568d7892245b. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-09T20:49:01.377Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge\_admitted\_by\_model, second\_opinion\_categorical. Observation: a2854deb475d06fee65e49354dd9a93cafe0e68dac0eb43e24a1399fc5e9a038. Source text hash: 41bc36e4ba3eabc8368441efa26c2023a112477963a57b876fd3dd383b7f854a. ### uncertain — 2026-11-09T20:49:01.377Z — anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 Publication: ba9be736-2167-2e1f-eef2-568d7892245b attribution — uncertain: The reading is one newsletter issue, so it counts as one piece. James O’Donnell is credited only on the prison-calls item, not as the newsletter's author. Calling it 'James O’Donnell’s MIT Technology Review newsletter' overstates his role. Smallest repair: 'an item by James O’Donnell in MIT Technology Review’s The Download newsletter.' The title and claims are otherwise correctly attributed to Elder, the advocates and the publication. > Read the full story. —James O’Donnell summary — pass: The summary accurately conveys the development: a company is piloting AI scanning of prisoners' calls, texts and emails. It also preserves the advocates' surveillance objection and the court-limits point. The reading omits that Securus is a US telecom company that trained models on its own call database, but the central meaning stays clear. The question is a genuine open issue that follows from the evidence. > A US telecom company trained an AI model on years of inmates’ phone and video calls date — pass: The stated date of December 1, 2025 matches the UTC day of originalPublished (2025-12-01T13:10Z). The Deep Dive links to other Download issues may be later additions, but the reading does not use them. There is no hindsight framing. The pilot is not presented as having produced outcomes. This is a publisher page, so no archive disclosure is needed. > is now piloting that model to scan their calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes. support — pass: The claims match the source: the pilot is aimed at predicting and preventing crimes, Elder says models were trained on recorded calls including Texas, other states and counties are being worked on, and advocates object while courts have set few limits. The sentence 'The concern is not only what the model can detect...' is a mild unlabeled interpretation, but it stays within the advocates' stated surveillance concern. The noted gaps about safeguards and outcomes are accurate. > It created one model, for example, using seven years of calls made by inmates in the Texas prison system, but it has been working on models for other states and counties. media — pass: No media was selected, and no verified candidates were supplied. ## Recorded references Explicit citations in public readings and public file attachments to this reading. Shared topics are not citations. Other artifact types need an explicit reference adapter. No public references recorded here yet. [Reference data (JSON)](/readings/567f3d5edc3395ee40816bb76ac3df49bba746915b270f40aa8446959f61ecad/references.json) ## Corrections and challenges [Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/) [JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/james-o-donnell-reports-in-mit-technology-review-on-ai-scanning-567f3d5e.json)