Our Restorative Initiatives
Implementing Technology Solutions to Break the Cycle of Incarceration, Restore Communities, and Heal Families.
At Pay Tel, we are deeply committed to fostering positive change, which is why we’ve dedicated an entire team to Restorative Initiatives. But what does this truly mean? For us, Restorative Initiatives embody a mission to inspire healing, accountability, and meaningful transformation. Our focus is on repairing harm and promoting reintegration, prioritizing growth and understanding over punishment. This approach reflects our belief in second chances and our dedication to making a lasting impact on individuals and communities.
We asked detainees how having access to Pay Tel’s technology and platform have impacted their lives.
Unlimited Free Access to Award Winning Premium Education
Our Pathway to Achieve™ education platform won GOLD at the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards 2024 for Best Advance in Social Impact Innovation.
Pathway to Achieve™ is a free premium education platform, created to change lives and help reduce recidivism. We’ve developed a self-administered Risk/Need Assessment and teamed up with experts to offer tailored courses for detainees, addressing their unique needs, learning styles, and goals. Our handpicked proprietary, exclusive, and licensed courses target common detainee challenges, focusing on personal development categories. We blend basic education and practical skills with deep behavioral change, aiming to reduce recidivism.
Our distinctive incentive-based education and access model ensures that all incarcerated individuals have equal opportunities, bridging socio-economic gaps and creating a safer, calmer jail environment. By completing educational courses, detainees earn free entertainment time, which allows them to watch movies, listen to music, and play games. This approach reduces disparities between those with and without access to monetary resources, ensuring that every detainee has the same opportunity to engage with tablet content. Through this model, everyone can acquire valuable skills to aid their success after incarceration.
A place for hope and devotion that allows incarcerated people to watch free inspirational videos and sermons
Pay Tel respects the spiritual journey of all, as a personal relationship with a higher power is the cornerstone of our organizations’ philosophy. In addition to a large library of religious and faith-based books and essays, Pay Tel makes available, at no charge, Pathway to Faith™, a tablet app with a growing library of thousands of inspirational sermon videos. We have received many letters from incarcerated people finding faith and a home Church as a result of using this app. We are eternally grateful for the organizations that partner with us to deliver these powerful and life changing messages.
A public service website filled with local, regional, and national reentry resources
Rise4Me.com was created in 2018 as a public service dedicated to contributing to the overall effort to reduce
recidivism. Rise4Me.com is a free, online tool that offers a directory of reentry resources made available in an easily accessible format. Rise4Me.com fills the need to put meaningful resources into the hands of formerly
incarcerated individuals to aid in their successful reentry into society.
There is also a comprehensive Guide to Reentry. Topics include: getting prepared to leave the correctional facility, getting your records, finding housing, finding a job, financial stability, rebuilding relationships, and more. This guide also includes a checklist of things to do to rebuild a life after incarceration.