Broadband Breakfast Live Online on November 12, 2025 - The Future of Corrections Connectivity
How do we balance innovation with public safety, address affordability for families and government agencies, and ensure compliance with evolving regulations?
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In a world reshaped by technology, a stark digital divide persists behind prison walls. While most of society connects, learns, and works online, incarcerated individuals remain cut off from the tools essential for rehabilitation and successful reentry. This disconnect not only limits personal growth but also strains families and creates barriers to safer facilities.
At the same time, new policies are reshaping communications, while corrections agencies continue to grapple with staffing shortages, contraband, and security risks. This timely panel will bring together leaders from corrections and policy to explore how safe and secure technology can bridge the digital divide. How do we balance innovation with public safety, address affordability for families and government agencies, and ensure compliance with evolving regulations? How can access to education, workforce readiness programs, and digital communication tools reduce contraband, enhance safety, and foster a smoother path to reentry? By equipping incarcerated individuals with the skills and digital tools needed for success, technology can strengthen facilities, ease burdens on staff, support families, and create safer, more resilient communities.
Broadband Breakfast
Panelists
- Tony Parker, Former Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Correction
- Congressman Danny Davis, Representative, Illinois's 7th District
- Teresa Hodge, President, Mission: Launch
- Salvatore Taillefer, Partner, Blooston Law
- Kevin Elder, President, Securus Technologies
- Drew Clark (moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast
Tony Parker, formerly the youngest warden in the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), possesses over 42 years of experience in corrections. He retired as Commissioner from TDOC on December 1, 2021. From 2021 to 2023, Mr. Parker served as President of the American Correctional Association. In 2015, Mr. Parker testified before the Congressional Homeland Security Committee regarding his thesis and recommendations for a deradicalization model for U.S. prisons. Currently, he holds multiple leadership and advisory roles within the corrections field.
Danny K. Davis has represented Illinois’s 7th Congressional District since 1996 and has been re-elected by wide margins ever since. In the 119th Congress, Representative Davis was reappointed to the Committee on Ways and Means and is the Subcommittee Ranking Member of the Worker and Family Support Subcommittee. Congressman Davis is also Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Re-entry, and was a co-sponsor of the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act. Before seeking public office, Congressman Davis had productive careers as an educator, community organizer, health planner/administrator, and civil rights advocate.
Teresa Y. Hodge, President of Mission: Launch. In June 2021 she was named one of the 50 over 50 Women by Forbes on their inaugural list for her innovative approach to criminal justice reform. She is the recipient of a Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Technology and Human Rights Fellows, where she co-authored the position paper “Mass Incarceration and The Future: An Urgent Need to Address the Human Rights Implications of Criminal Background Checks and the Future of Artificial Intelligence.” She co-founded and served as the initial CEO for R3 Score Technologies, Inc., which offers a modernized criminal background report. She navigated the company through Techstars Impact 2019, Echoing Green 2018-2020 alumni, and was one of eight of the inaugural cohort members of New Profit’s Unlocked Futures accelerator. She currently serves as Chairwoman of the Advisory Board for Aventiv Technologies.
Salvatore Taillefer, Jr. has been practicing telecommunications law for 18 years and is admitted to both the Florida and District of Columbia bars. He has extensive experience with regulatory compliance, inter-carrier disputes, and state public service commission issues. Sal represents the National Sheriffs Association on incarcerated persons communications issues.
Kevin Elder is a results-driven and visionary c-suite business & technology executive with a distinguished career spanning over two decades in shaping technology-enabled business transformations. With a deep-rooted passion for architecting solutions to modern challenges, Elder has consistently driven innovation and growth within the global business landscape. His exceptional leadership and strategic insights have earned him a reputation as a dynamic leader capable of delivering transformative results.
Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing tool to collect and verify broadband data left unpublished by the Federal Communications Commission. As CEO and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media community advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.
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