New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has signed a new law to allow prisoners to make free phone calls from inside New York City’s jails, following a long campaign by activists demanding an end to the exorbitant and exploitative rates charged by the billion-dollar prison phone industry. Currently, the private company Securus, which manages phones in New York City’s jails, reaps $2.5 million every single year off prisoners’ phone calls. About 75 percent of the people incarcerated in New York City’s jails have not been convicted of a crime and are sitting in jail awaiting their trials.