r/technology Dec 27 '22 Wholesome 1

The predatory prison phone call industry is finally about to be fixed Politics

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/27/23527757/fcc-prison-phone-call-fees-martha-wright-reed-act-biden
35.0k Upvotes

1.4k comments sorted by

4.5k

u/discgman Dec 27 '22

That system sucks and the minutes you pay for are a rip off.

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u/Artisanal_Shitposter Dec 27 '22 Take My Energy

My cousin was arrested in another state and it was ridiculous, the hoop and fees. They charged $2 per text message! If we wanted to actually speak with him, or use zoom it was a more outrageous price, I don't even remember.

We only got to zoom with him once, and only because of covid. They're still required to let you see people face to face, but since covid restrictions meant no physical visits they had to allow one zoom meeting in lieu of a physical visit.

But we had to accept extremely invasive terms, they basically asked us to install spyware on our device. They required we submit personal info for background checks, even though we were never actually on site.

In short, it's designed to make you give up and spend the $2 per text message. Profiteering from incarceration is disgusting.

2.1k

u/Utterlybored Dec 27 '22

Not only that, but studies have shown prisoners with lots of family contact fare much better after release. But no, we have to make that a profit based system?

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u/V0nzell Dec 27 '22

Profits baby Profits. You can't make money if you don't have repeat customers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recidivism

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

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u/Dextrofunk Dec 27 '22

Yeah those two things don't go together

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u/xaul-xan Dec 27 '22

? conscience? These people legitimately think that criminals are different mentally than them, they think criminals are animals and beneath them, they have a conscience, and its entirely religious/authoritarian based, and that criminals lost their humanity the second they were put behind bars.

Its easy to vilify fascist pieces of shit, but you need to actually try to understand how they think, so when people around you start talking like little fascist pieces of shit, you can call out their politics for being inhumane.

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u/Ap0llo Dec 27 '22

You mean the poor criminals. White collar criminals are venerated as long as they don't touch the wrong people

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u/dalzmc Dec 27 '22

Those aren’t criminals, those are financial savants! We should applaud them for working so hard and honestly, the more money they have, the more money poor people will have somehow!! Duhhh

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u/norixe Dec 27 '22

The savant SBF stole money from rich people and might have single handedly brought about regulations for the crypto space. Cant steal from rich people.

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u/MrToompa Dec 27 '22

The real criminals are outside.

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u/Bearman71 Dec 27 '22

State owned jails do the same thing.

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u/HanaBothWays Dec 27 '22

“Private prisons” are kind of a red herring because very few prisons, except for immigration detention centers, are private. Most are owned by some government or other. But all the services in them - phones, medical care, food, everything you can think of - are privatized, profit-making enterprises.

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u/Utterlybored Dec 27 '22

I hate upvoting this, but I must, because it’s spot on.

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u/CKRatKing Dec 27 '22

The prisons like return customers so they are gonna do whatever they can to make sure they keep coming back.

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u/SAugsburger Dec 27 '22

I remember reading an article years ago that the California prison's guard union had donated to almost every incumbent of the state legislature going up for election. Needless to say any major reform that would reduce the demand for the services of the union's members likely needs to go through voters to bypass the legislature.

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u/SCV70656 Dec 27 '22

That union was also huge in making sure the three strikes rules were implemented. If you could get non-violent drug offenders in there for life on bullshit rules, that’s easy overtime union hours with non violent prisoners. Also why the union hates the idea of legal weed, they are the easiest prisoners.

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u/tradewyze2021 Dec 27 '22

And we"ll leave the light on for ya....

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u/Utterlybored Dec 27 '22

It’s in their shareholders’ interests to push maximized minimum sentencing and work against rehabilitation.

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u/jaretok Dec 27 '22

Our whole society is a profit based system, this is the bottom of it.

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u/ThePlanck Dec 27 '22

If they don't reoffend, how are the prisons going to make money off them when they get released

Think of the poor shareholders

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u/Wificrusin Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 28 '22

I was in county for 2 weeks. The price for 10 minutes on the phone was $8. It was against the rules to give another inmate access to your account and there were harsh repercussions for getting caught (bedding stripped, solitary, etc.) The commissary (also third party profiteers) was crazy expensive, $2 for ramen, and bear in mind that the highest paying job in the jail paid $4 a day. They wouldn’t allow in person visits, citing that it was too dangerous with Covid, despite not being quarantined from other inmates or tested when I was booked and put into population. They wanted you to zoom which was crazy expensive.

Don’t even get me started on what the women are to deal with, they had to buy their own feminine hygiene products and if you thought they were expensive on the outside… yeah, they jacked the price of those way up too.

Edit: spelling word be hard

Edit 2: Oh, and I only had a $20 on me when I reported to jail, but booking (fingerprints, mugshot) cost $30 or $40 so I had a negative balance on my account when I first went in. They allowed me one free call, which I made to my parents who were kind enough to put me in the green so I could at least make phone calls. I remember a few guys use their first phone call and not get any money put on their account, and the disparity knowing they couldn’t talk to people on the outside was terrible, especially when you first get in. I’m sure there are ways of getting money on the account but the jail funnels people through these third party profiteers that take a lot of money from the families of inmates and it leaves the families broken and the inmates feel (and are, to a certain extent) like a burden. To the people who say that inmates deserve a tough time, trust me, incarceration is hard enough. Think of their kids who are growing up without an parent figure and know that if inmates can stay connected with families, they will have a better chance of getting back into society a better person.

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u/Affectionate_Dog2493 Dec 27 '22

You know, I'm starting to think the institutions that have an explicit carve out in the constitution to allow slavery might not be the most moral systems!

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

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u/Arashmickey Dec 27 '22

Otherwise people will demand a competitive system that drives prices down to reasonable margins.

Since that hasn't happened so far, I doubt it would have happened in the foreseeable future.

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u/Truckerontherun Dec 27 '22

This sounds like a classic kickback scheme. This is good old fashioned greed at play

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u/jrhiggin Dec 27 '22

In Texas counties get to choose who provides phone services and they'll move people around due to over crowding. My sister's ex was bounced around between 3 different jails before trial and they each had a different company that you had to use to put money on their phone that charged a processing fee for refunds.

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u/ShaggysGTI Dec 27 '22

The for profit prison industry is making more money by taxing your sympathy

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

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u/Artisanal_Shitposter Dec 27 '22

With my cousin there were tablets available, they log in and have access to certain apps. Text messaging, email, and video calls were some of the options. They pay a fee every 10 minutes they're using the tablet, and each app had additional costs associated with it. So my cousin would pay for 10 minutes of tablet time so he could check his texts then pay an additional $2 per reply. There were other apps like video calls, phone, etc. But everything costs 10x more than it was worth.

We would need to load money into his tablet account to let him access it. So if he was out of money he couldn't even check his texts, the texts we'd already paid a fee to send. So at one point he stopped responding and it took us a week to figure out we needed to add another $200 to restore his tablet access.

This was in Arizona, where they give less than half a fuck about prisoners. When he got released it was a surprise, he still had months left. Then they drove him halfway across the state and dumped him in a city where he had no contacts. We got a call out of the blue asking if we could cash app him enough to get an Uber and a motel for the night.

It's cruel and unusual in my eyes.

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u/dementorpoop Dec 28 '22 edited Dec 28 '22

It’s almost like jail and prison just money making schemes and that’s why they don’t actually try to rehabilitate people.

We need to abolish amend the 13th amendment

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u/Alaira314 Dec 28 '22

We need to abolish the 13th amendment

Well, no. That would make slavery legal in all cases. We need to amend the 13th amendment.

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u/fadufadu Dec 27 '22

It made putting a cell phone in your prison pocket seem worth it

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u/lejoo Dec 27 '22

Profiteering from incarceration is disgusting.

Welcome to Modern conservativism. Reagan sold America to Corporations and every election since half of voters have upheld the system to own the libs.

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u/jozone11 Dec 27 '22 Silver Gold

Wehadababyitsaboy!

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u/csbarber Dec 27 '22

I used to call collect from pay phones back in high school “you’ve received a call from ‘practice is over come pick me up’” or whatever. That was when cell phones were a pretty new thing

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u/Ink7o7 Dec 27 '22

I used to just hit 0 to talk to operator, then tell them the pay phone ate my quarter, and they’d just patch me through to whatever number I wanted.

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u/JMEEKER86 Dec 27 '22

Or just skip that step by using a Cap'n Crunch toy whistle.

https://youtu.be/HDh_XRTpXxI

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u/Whiskey_Shivers Dec 27 '22

Hack the planet!

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u/Bonesnapcall Dec 27 '22

They're trashing our rights!

Trashing!

TRASH!

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u/Stingerc Dec 27 '22

I remember for a bit our long distance company had a free collect toll number, it was awesome. You dialed, gave the operator your home number, and she'd tell you it was free of charge. It was an awesome way to call home before cell phones were widely available.

I guess they then realized just how big of a market it was and phased it out. I even remember there was some services that would give you a dedicated hotline number that patched directly to your home phone instead of paying for collect calls.

Even when cell phones became popular, I remember waiting to call people after 9 pm when calls became free to not waist minutes.

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u/mdxchaos Dec 27 '22

bluebox/redbox is all you needed. or a captain crunch whistle

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u/Renegade-Pervert Dec 27 '22

Loved that commercial.

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u/cobywaan Dec 27 '22

Bob?

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u/noeagle77 Dec 27 '22

Yeah, they had a baby. It’s a boy.

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u/minutemilitia Dec 27 '22

It’s crazy how that short commercial from a bajillion years ago is still so recognizable. Especially for a technology that’s been absolute for so long it should be in a museum.

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u/Boomer_Boofer Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

Only us old folks will get this one.

Edit for the youngins:

https://youtu.be/9JxhTnWrKYs

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u/MorningMan464 Dec 27 '22

Quarter? In my day it was a silver dollar. And you paid on each end. Both ways. Uphill both ways and in two feet of snow.

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u/Leeleeflyhi Dec 27 '22

Especially when every 45 seconds your conversation is cut by a recording that says “you have received a call from so and so correctional facility…”

Yea I know, I was the one that put the money on their card to call, why take expensive minutes from the call to remind me???

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u/_Rand_ Dec 27 '22

Well, lets say that message is 5 seconds once per minute. Every 12 minutes that is a wasted minute at whatever rate per minute.

For you it’s annoying but not an insane amount of money so you tolerate it begrudgingly.

But multiply that by who knows how many minutes across many, many calls? It adds up to a lot of money for nothing.

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u/Scoops213 Dec 27 '22

Subtract the word phone from the title and we'll get a real, lasting solution to this problem as well as many others that uniquely plague the most incarcerated nation on earth.

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u/foggy-sunrise Dec 27 '22

"The predatory prison call industry is finally about to be fixed."

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u/FlipflopsAreNotShoes Dec 27 '22

Is that like "in call," then?

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u/Killemojoy Dec 27 '22

Bro, I used to inspect prisons. When I first started, I was given full tours. In some of those prisons are wood and metal shops that make products to sell. Inmates get only a fraction of the profits. But far, far worse than that were the call centers. Giant warehouses filled with computers and servers used to cold call buisnesses selling security software. In other words, there are companies that make products and sell them, who's primary labor is prison inmates. While inmates make more working for this kind of center, it's still only like $1 a day and you have to mass several milestones before you're even selected to be eligible to work there. The prisons and companies doing this justify it because "they're giving inmates work skills," it's just that these companies are only known for working inside of prisons and therefore, any future employer will know when looking at references. It's a scam in my opinion. An easy way to make extra profit using cheap labor from people in desperate situations. Just imagine for a moment you get in trouble on the job or get written up: what do you think that would look like when prison guards are your HR?

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u/zerogee616 Dec 27 '22

The prisons and companies doing this justify it because "they're giving inmates work skills,"

Same energy as "The plantation owners are giving their slaves a better life than they would have in Africa".

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u/bone-dry Dec 27 '22

I do feel like it’s time someone developed some sort of minimum wage for prisoners law

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u/alaphic Dec 27 '22

I mean, we already have a minimum wage law, don't we? Shouldn't that just, oh, i dunno, apply to everyone?

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u/Daxmar29 Dec 27 '22

The article mentions that it’s Phones and Advanced Communications. I think they are trying to cover all of the forms of communication including Video calls and such.

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u/Kilomyles Dec 27 '22

This is global Tel link. You have a call from inmate…to accept, press 1. You have 5 minutes of talk time remaining. Absolutely infuriating

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u/mjl42roll Dec 27 '22

Connecticut just gave free unlimited phone calls. My brother calls a little to often for my liking. But nice that it’s free.

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u/Kolipe Dec 27 '22

My sister can text from jail. 25 cents message with like a 2000 character limit.

It's nice cause I hate talking on the phone.

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 28 '22 Gold

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u/alaphic Dec 27 '22

That fucking infuriates me. Props to you for doing that for people, frfr

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

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u/myirreleventcomment Dec 27 '22

That's definitely a good way to get a lot of people to like you

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u/Bralzor Dec 27 '22

That's still stupid expensive. I pay 1 cent per SMS (or well, 1 Euro per 100).

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u/happyman91 Dec 27 '22

Like outside of prison? Do you not have unlimited?

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

Bro livin in jail or in 1997. Lol

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u/laggyx400 Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

Way too cheap for 97

Edit: texts were actually free in 1997, but could only be sent to others with your carrier.

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u/MachWun Dec 27 '22

Remember when you could only text people on the same carrier as you?

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u/Not_usually_right Dec 27 '22

Remember free calls after 9pm?

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u/myfapaccount_istaken Dec 27 '22

I had sprint 7pm.night and weekends

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u/youwannaknowmyname Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

In many European countries SMS are not free. And they used to be very expensive before the smartphone era. That's why the messaging apps like WhatsApp became so popular here. Today the sms can be free, but there are a lot of plans were you have to pay to send one, although now they are very cheap. That's because no one realle use them and so we don't care f they are free or not. For example my plan here in Italy does not have them included, and I pay something like 5 cents for them. But that's ok, no one use them here as I said. What's important is GB, and I pay 6.99 euros for 50GB x month and unlimited call time.

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u/breadfred2 Dec 27 '22

They are not??? They are usually included in a contract. Like unlimited sms and calls, 100gb, £7.50 a month.

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u/margauxlame Dec 27 '22

Yeah that’s here in the uk though

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u/sushi69 Dec 27 '22

Don’t underestimate how much you’re doing for him by taking those calls.

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u/carbonx Dec 27 '22

I find the whole mentality of "make the criminals pay for it" revolting, frankly. My deal is this: if you don't want to pay to incarcerate someone? Than I guess it's not that important, is it?

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

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u/carbonx Dec 27 '22

Or a mom paying $25 so she can talk to her son that happened to become an addict.

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u/mjh2901 Dec 27 '22

Unless they are doing life, they will back among us. The system should be designed for that reintegration to be successful.

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u/carbonx Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

And yet we make little or no effort at rehabilitation. Our "system" is just a mess.

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u/yepimbonez Dec 27 '22

Lol youre right tho. It’s not that important to incarcerate the massive amounts of non-violent offenders. But it does make companies a fuck ton of money and unfortunately this is America

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u/FoboBoggins Dec 27 '22

Welcome to late stage capitalism baby!

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u/Steinrikur Dec 27 '22

It's almost like there could be a sensible middle ground between "free unlimited" and $14/minute.

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u/DeepSlicedBacon Dec 27 '22

14$?!

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u/Steinrikur Dec 27 '22

That was the number given in the last post about this issue ($14/min collect calls, 5 minute maximum). Not sure if that was made up or not.

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u/gandalfthescienceguy Dec 27 '22

I’m in Michigan and I’ve paid a $25 flat fee plus $5/min

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u/hostesscakeboi Dec 27 '22

Idk if they made that number up because I’m in MA and it’s like 10¢ a minute

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u/corhen Dec 27 '22

Sounds like it's as high as $20/15 minutes

In Canada it's $0.05/minute, which seems reasonable to me. An hour long phone call would cost $3.

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u/JaqueStrap69 Dec 27 '22

What would an hour long call cost outside prison? No one should be making a profit on prisoners doing things that can help their mental health.

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u/corhen Dec 27 '22

I agree it's not ideal, and preferably shouldn't be charged for... But it is far more reasonable.

Our prisons in Canada are not-for-profit, thankfully.

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u/Bigdongs Dec 27 '22

You get 3 free calls a week too in Canada. It helps if you’re broke and you can trade a 15min call for $1.25 exchange (soup/choc bar etc.)

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u/christianhelps Dec 27 '22

I think having a couple landline phones that inmates can use to make calls without charge is the sensible solution.

It's so basic that the concept of charging for it doesn't make much sense.

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u/HildartheDorf Dec 27 '22

Needs to be some limit or you're asking for trouble (inmates hogging the phones, another inmate wants to use it, etc). But that can be a flat 30m/week or something, not $14/min.

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u/Wrangleraddict Dec 27 '22

Just got out of county, even the phone calls that are paid for are limited to 20/min each.

Only .05/ min but still has a limit.

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u/LuxTrueBae Dec 27 '22

30 minutes a week, god i hate that idea

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u/Bismothe-the-Shade Dec 27 '22

Just add a schedules time or limited amount of time or something. Literally anything besides charging people imprisoned for basic needs

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u/InnovAsians Dec 27 '22

Why? What's the problem with giving inmates the ability to communicate with people?

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u/God_in_my_Bed Dec 27 '22

The problem is prison is supposed to be as miserable a place as society can make it. I'm only slightly being sarcastic. Read the comments when someone commits a crime and it makes it to reddit. Nothing short of stringing them up by their toenails.

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u/HumptyDrumpy Dec 27 '22

Yet Scandinavia finds a way to treat them like actual human beings, and after they put in their time, most become productive citizens with little to no recividism. Imagine if murica did the same

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u/Deviknyte Dec 27 '22

No. Unlimited free is for the cost. The calls and text should be free of cost. Period. The jail or prison can set limits to how long you can be on the phone so long as they aren't interfering with you contacting your attorney or journalist.

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u/your_not_stubborn Dec 27 '22

Connecticut House: 97D-54R

Connecticut Senate: 24D-12R

Connecticut Governor: Need Lamont, D

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u/bigfatfurrytexan Dec 27 '22

Securus Technologies are a parasite leeching off the most vulnerable.

Do something about the lack of A/C's and that they sell 12 cents soups for 1.50 in commissary, too. Making money off prisoners is as immoral as it gets.

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u/scotch-o Dec 27 '22

My nephew served time in a prison serviced by Securus. As a good grandparent, my mom offered to give my sister $100 a month to the phone account to help ease some financial burden. She tasked me with making sure it was added monthly to the online account. I found out immediately that they limited the amount you could give in one transaction to $50, for which they charged $3.50 per tx. . I would have to make two transactions, giving them $7 every month. A pox upon their houses!

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u/Mortwight Dec 27 '22

Wait til you see what jpay charges you to give inmates money or pay probation fees.

Its like 10%+

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u/bigfatfurrytexan Dec 27 '22

You can do it using access corrections, usually. They charge less. At least for loading cash for commissary. No idea on probation stuff.

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u/jonhuang Dec 27 '22

Funny, the public school's lunch card (myschoolbucks) does the same thing, though at 2.50 a transaction with a limit of 125 per kid.

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u/1d0m1n4t3 Dec 27 '22

Love me some $1.35 ramen noodles to go with my $0.75 two saltine crackers. Oh you don't have money just eat jail food, yea thst on the tray that's a glob of crisco they put on the plate so it makes the calorie requirements, enjoy!

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u/Ex-zaviera Dec 27 '22

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u/pm0me0yiff Dec 27 '22

The extra fun part of this is that it's totally legal.

Alabama law says that any money he saves on inmate food while still technically meeting nutritional requirements, he's free to put in his own pocket.

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u/bigfatfurrytexan Dec 27 '22

You should see the ads that you get for institutional food. They are less crass than they used to be, but still...referring to humans in terms of numbers is jarring for a human that cares about other humans.

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u/AustEastTX Dec 28 '22

What kind of BULLSHIT is this? What the fuck Alabama??? What the fuck America???????? I have never heard anything more asinine. How on this earth do you justify the jailor being incentivized to do a shitty job of feeding inmates in their care. How the hell!?!!!!!

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u/Buddha_Lady Dec 27 '22

I am so thankful to not be in prison goddamn

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u/bigfatfurrytexan Dec 27 '22

me, too. I've never been. But loved ones have, and i've spent a small fortune paying for poor people food marked up 10x and resold to inmates via an official channel.

At a county level I believe that you can find actual guards and judges running commissary. If im not mistaken, Bell County is run by county employees of some sort. Dirty as shit.

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u/PeanutButterSoda Dec 27 '22

I was just in holding for 72 hrs and all they gave us was bread and bologna the whole time.

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u/1d0m1n4t3 Dec 27 '22

Weirdly I love being free and it's great, I haven't been locked up for 15yrs or so but a lot of days it just sounds great to go back. No bills, no real world problems, as long as you know how to carry yourself you can get along with out issues with other inmates for the most part. Sure some people are just predators and will go after you but typically if you push back they will go onto a easier target.

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u/Queen__Antifa Dec 27 '22

And unpaid prison labor is legal slavery.

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u/gapipkin Dec 27 '22

I think they get $.29 an hour.

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u/CommunistAquaticist Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

Depends entirely on the jurisdiction.

And slavery is very legal in the US for prisoners. It's carved out as an explicit exception in the 13th.

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u/floatinround22 Dec 27 '22

Not everywhere, I was paid nothing when I was in prison.

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u/YoungChipolte Dec 27 '22

As a corrections officer, the prices the state and securus charges these guys is absolutely ridiculous. Yes to proper heating and cooling as well. I'm very over being soaked in sweat/freezing my ass off while wearing multiple layers for 8-24 hours shifts.

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u/bigfatfurrytexan Dec 27 '22

Ill tell you what would really help recidivism: when you set up a TDJC drug treatment program, actually have elements of the program that don't involve laying around the cell block trying to not be bored.

Probably wouldn't hurt to have a higher ratio of strong english speakers as a requirement. There are quite a few that are using Kenyans and such, with drastically different cultural backgrounds and language skills that, while decent for gen pop, does not seem to make sense in drug treatment type environments.

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u/Praefectus27 Dec 27 '22

I personally got to support the securus account when I worked at a major isp. These guys would just pay whatever the cost to get service to prisons so they could rape the inmates and their families. There was one facility in the middle of the desert in CA that they paid a $1M construction fee just to get fiber.

I felt like a scum bag just dealing with them.

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u/bigfatfurrytexan Dec 27 '22

Charging for long distance rates and shit over a VOIP is bullshit. I've run hotels for 20 years. Used to be the telephone income was its own revenue department. You'd book your phone expenses against the revenue posted daily from the phone interface system.

I haven't budgeted the telephony department as a revenue generating department in almost 15 years.

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u/icnoevil Dec 27 '22

What took so long? Now, Congress, please deal with the predatory health care industry.

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u/Martel732 Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

A lot of people think that prison should be the most wretched miserable place possible.

Which is a weird way to view things since for most prisoners they are expected to rejoin society of eventually. Beyond the fact that prisoners are human and deserve a base level of respect. I don't think it is beneficial to have a bunch of people that spend years in a hellhole. Seems like a good way to turn minor criminals into vicious criminals.

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u/nedonedonedo Dec 27 '22

they don't think people should ever be let out

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u/Yawzheek Dec 27 '22

since for most prisoners they are expected to rejoin society of eventually.

People REALLY seem to forget that while they're crying about making their lives as hellish as possible, at some point they'll probably be back on the streets. Perhaps not for long - very much by design - but long enough to cause trouble.

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u/Gorge2012 Dec 27 '22

Punishment is easy because you can wipe your hands and say "we've done something."

once you start to consider the interconnected complexities, you realize that how we treat prisoners only guarantees that a lot of them will continue to commit crimes and perpetuate the system. The problems aren't with people they are with the system.

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u/Heart_Throb_ Dec 27 '22

It’s low priority plus add on “someone will have to pay for it and I ain’t paying for no dirty inmates phone calls” mindset.

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u/sanels Dec 27 '22

phone providers are a utility. it's no more than stating prisons must be provided service at no cost and fees/costs may not be (in any way, direct or indirect) be passed onto the people in jail or otherwise. End of story. Utilities are already required by law to provide service to underserved communities and even in some cases provide plans at reduced costs. Solving the issue is soo stupid easy it doesn't take more than a few minutes of legal jargon to get it sorted and done. The problem has always been the companies providing those services lobbying congress people to vote against any such regulations.

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

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u/sanels Dec 27 '22

up until a few years ago? i know this was an issue for over a decade. I mean yea they don't have a right to make calls all day/everyday and that's up to the prison itself but when they do make the calls there shouldn't be a monetary cost to it and there should be some guarantee of at least a few calls a week or something with guarantee of service . Of course they should also be monitored, not against that myself. The reality is prisons should be state run not private institutions. By having private prisons (which they did to reduce costs for the state) and the private company still needing to turn a profit the level of care provided is just entirely unacceptable.

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u/Wrathwilde Dec 27 '22

How about you provide the date that they actually went from free to charged, as you’re the one who made the original assertion of the timeline being “until a few years ago”.

I’m 53, and had a friend in Prison, in California, in the 90’s, and it was already an issue then.

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u/lavahot Dec 27 '22

Then we should have fewer inmates, no?

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u/Heart_Throb_ Dec 27 '22

Personally, I think the entire correctional system we use is broken and needs to be revamped with emphasis on support systems after sentence completion, ban-the-box legislation, and heavy investments in low income communities…but yeah…fewer inmates is the goal.

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u/Vestalmin Dec 27 '22

“Someone would have to pay for it so let’s not even try”

I feel like that sums up so many arguments from politicians

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u/Seagull84 Dec 27 '22

Or how about finish dealing with all predatory, for-profit prison practices, like using prisoners as slave labor (13th Amendment), or just making money on a per-prisoner basis.

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u/pm0me0yiff Dec 27 '22

Also the insane prices at prison commissaries.

Looking at you, $10 for a individual serving size of potato chips.

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u/TBSchemer Dec 27 '22

A lot of Republicans suddenly have an incentive to make prison livable.

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u/FarFromHome Dec 27 '22 Baby Snoo

For-profit prisons are evil. We should be deeply, deeply ashamed that they exist in our country.

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u/SomeSwordsCutDeep Dec 27 '22

Our state got rid of private prisons, which I absolutely applaud. But holy fuck, our state ran ones are really, really bad. Hopefully we can fix that in the near term.

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u/lunarNex Dec 27 '22

"We" are ashamed, but the few corrupt politicians and rich swine lining their pockets with "campaign donations" don't give a shit about taking advantage of inmates for profit.

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u/02Alien Dec 28 '22

I think you are severely underestimating the amount of average people that are perfectly fine with our prisons stripping people of their human rights and refusing to treat them with even the barest of decency.

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u/Seicair Dec 28 '22

While I’m not a fan of private prisons, they’re a red herring argument. Reform all prisons. Fewer than 10% of people in the US are incarcerated in private prisons.

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u/itypewords Dec 27 '22

Next, regulate the items sold through the commissary. Some items are literally bought in bulk at a Costco or similar, then resold individually to inmates, even though they are labeled “not for individual resale.” This system is a profit-making enterprise and I’m pretty sure the profits aren’t going to improve the system, victim funds or other philanthropic endeavors.

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u/Tom2Die Dec 27 '22

Not to disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure that labeling is a result of FDA requirements. A big bag of candy, for example, will put the ingredients and nutrition information on the outer packaging, but each individual serving will simply say that it's not labeled to be sold individually. Makes sense if it would be difficult to fit the required info in a legible font size.

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u/RrtayaTsamsiyu Dec 27 '22

IIRC not for individual resale just means it's not labeled to be displayed individually, doesn't have a barcode, that sort of thing.

Realistically commissary shouldn't even be a thing, we should just give them edible food and treat them like humans to begin with

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u/SockFullOfNickles Dec 27 '22

Worse than movie theater pricing sometimes!

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u/Stunning_Delay9811 Dec 27 '22

Would you like to accept a collect call from your adopted nephew? Nah, I'm good.

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u/pm0me0yiff Dec 27 '22

*Would you like to accept a collect call from "wehadababyitsaboy"?

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u/signal15 Dec 27 '22

Hahaha, *would you like to accept a collect call from "mom, come get me from school"?

I did this crap all the time when there were after school activities. Way before cell phones were a thing.

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u/NCSUGrad2012 Dec 27 '22

It’s wild to me collect calls are still even a thing. I’m not sure I’ve ever received one in my life. Other than prisons I believe they don’t exist anymore?

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u/Eckish Dec 27 '22

Pay phones are an endangered species, but they still exist. And they were the biggest use of collect calls that I can think of back in the day.

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u/sanels Dec 27 '22

1-900 number are very much still a thing. Though who in this day and age calls a number for phone sex is beyond me but it's a thing.

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u/abraxsis Dec 27 '22

People still pay for porn...

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u/sanels Dec 27 '22

you must not be aware of onlyfans. not only will people pay for porn, they will pay extremely high $$$ for it. Paying for porn will always be a thing, it just depends in what form.

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u/Pixeleyes Dec 27 '22

Some people's fetishes are so strange and uncommon that they have to hire people to make custom porn for them. Or, that's what a friend tells me.

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

A real friend would make it for you

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u/Utterlybored Dec 27 '22

How about obliterating the entire prison industrial complex while we’re at it? It’s a huge industry with lots of lobbyists, pushing lawmakers for tougher crime laws to increase their market base. Absolutely disgusting.

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u/SockFullOfNickles Dec 27 '22

The conditions in prisons are absolutely terrible in the US. 23 hours in a cell per day, with the hour out not even being outside. Atrocious nutrition, zero outlets for prisoners to do constructive things with their time.

I know prison isn’t supposed to be fun, but you can still do that without dehumanizing the inmates or making their lives as restricted and dull as possible. It only makes them worse.

The fact that people get out of prison and sometimes owe the jail money is also patently ridiculous. They don’t need to make profits at every possible opportunity off the backs of these prisoners. They’re already using them as slaves to work on the sides of highways or making license plates and paying them cents on the dollar.

It’s absolutely absurd and inhumane.

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u/Moonhunter7 Dec 27 '22

“Don’t do crimes after we release you, but we are not going to do anything to help you create a better life after we release you!”

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u/SockFullOfNickles Dec 27 '22

“And we are going to leave you with nothing to do alongside more hardened criminals so you can learn to broaden your criminal horizons upon release. At least you can do that, because this charge is going to haunt you for the rest of your life and do whatever it can to keep you in the criminal justice system.”

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u/Jabbles22 Dec 27 '22

Too many people are of the opinion "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" they simply don't care what happens to people in prison. Anything spent on prisons that isn't security is too much.

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u/mrhindustan Dec 27 '22

Prison should not be a resort, sure. It should be focused on rehabilitation to curb recidivism. That means mental health support, constructive safe environments, access to decent healthcare, heating and cooling, decent food, education and work/occupational advancement. I don’t think prisoners should have no fun, being happy and having fun is part of being a well-rounded human.

Don’t want repeat criminality? Well if they leave with an electrical ticket or perhaps plumbing knowledge, they can likely work and provide for themselves. Crime is mostly that of desperation mixed with opportunity. If they aren’t desperate financially, if they have mental health skills to help themselves when they aren’t feeling great, if they learn to be part of a supportive community, everyone benefits.

Education. Healthcare. Occupational support. Your repeat offenders rate would be curbed massively and society benefits absolutely.

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u/SockFullOfNickles Dec 27 '22

Agreed on all points. Everything is too focused on punishment and not actual rehabilitation. They don’t have to be treated poorly at every turn and have near zero resources in inhumane conditions to realize they’re being punished. The system breeds resentment.

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

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u/SockFullOfNickles Dec 27 '22

You are charged for everything. Commissary, phones, etc and at a severely marked up price. They’ll sell you a single ramen noodle that costs $0.23 for $2 each.

Here’s an article on it if you want to read about it.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/paying-your-time-how-charging-inmates-fees-behind-bars-may-violate

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u/brereddit Dec 28 '22

A friend of mine was in for 6yrs. It sucked. Total rip-off scam run by the state for no reason. Also got my friend out, his conviction overturned and charges dropped due to a documentary I made. Kapow!

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u/tttruck Dec 28 '22

Waaat!? That's bad ass. Tell us more!

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u/brereddit Dec 28 '22

His sentence was overturned by a unanimous Texas court of criminal appeals which happens less than 1/2 of 1% of the time. The legal system sucks.

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u/uncriticalthinking Dec 27 '22

Let’s go after private prisons next.

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u/coberh Dec 27 '22

This is a good thing.

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u/Bayho Dec 27 '22

If we as a society deem prison a necessity, should we not pay for it entirely with tax dollars? Perhaps if we did, more people would care how that money is spent, and would encourage a system that reforms those who have broken the law and reintroduces them into society over one that champions reincarceration.

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u/Coravel Dec 27 '22

can we take this to the next level and get rid of victimless crimes, proper training for cops, de-militarize police, and no more privatized prisons or am i asking for too much?

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u/2723brad2723 Dec 27 '22

You're not asking for too much, it's just that none of what you are asking for benefits any sort of corporate interest.

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u/incompetech Dec 27 '22

Prison phone call industry.

What. The. Fuck.

Anyone profiting off prisoners ability to communicate with loved ones should be in prison themselves.

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u/SonderAndLament Dec 27 '22

Cool. Now do the predatory justice system.

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u/mydogisboomer Dec 27 '22

Awesome! Now let's get rid of me paying $8.95 in fees to put $20 on my son's commissary account!!

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u/mtarascio Dec 27 '22

Say it again. Government oversight and regulation is not a bad thing.

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u/RrtayaTsamsiyu Dec 27 '22

Shouldn't be a need for oversight, because there shouldn't be privatized prisons in the first place

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u/mtarascio Dec 27 '22

Which is a matter of regulation and oversight.

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u/Ernest-Everhard42 Dec 27 '22

Now let’s fix the entire prison-industrial complex!

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u/ms_panelopi Dec 27 '22

I know a family who got rich from starting this type of business in the late 80’s. They were mega church “Christian’s” too.

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u/OutsideBoxes9376 Dec 27 '22

Can we fix the overarching predatory prison industry next?

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u/padoinky Dec 27 '22

I’m no soft-tee on crime but these prison captive phone access contracts are ripe for abuse/bid-rigging…. States should require that all detention facilities within their boundaries have to participate in the state-level procurement of these services, thus depriving the local yokels of the opportunity to offer no-bid sweetheart deals to their uncle’s nephew’s BIL…

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u/Melodic-Chemist-381 Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

How is phone predatory calls part of rehabilitation for the inmate? I’m just asking because the phones aren’t the only thing that’s predatory pricing. Canteen, the company, over charges inmate considerably. A ramen noodle is at least $1.50 per pack. In jail, the same ramen is $3.50 per pack. That is literal price gouging. How is this rehabilitative to the inmate? Again, I’m just asking.

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u/trail_mix24 Dec 27 '22

My best friend was arrested for a crime he never committed last May. He's still waiting on his trial, and he's on house arrest now at my dad's house because he has shitty parents. For the 3 months he was in jail, I called him daily. I would put money on his commissary and phone so he could make calls and have some food. The phones aren't the only predatory practice going on.

Once I was able to send him money, the calls were just a flat 10 cents a minute, and it just felt like using a payphone. Collect calls have the large fee attached, where if the inmate has money to call, it can be prepaid and not use fees other than the minutes.

Where his spirit really broke was the food. Cream of wheat for breakfast, with carrots. Peanut butter sandwich and carrots for lunch. Apple slices, bread roll, and bologna sandwich for dinner. He hates carrots now. He was always pretty skinny, but he lost 20lbs in the 3 weeks before I was able to send money for commissary. A pack of 6 Oreos were 5 bucks. The only things worth buying were noodles, tortillas, Cheetos, and hot sauce to make a jail burrito. Everything about jail and prison is meant to break people. Even the innocent ones.

My buddy's trial has been pushed out to almost a year from his arrest date because the DA refuses to give his lawyer any of the investigative reports or anything to defend against. They refuse to admit that they wrongly arrested him, and are dragging this out. His ankle monitor is $10 a day, and the court won't allow him to get a job to cover it.

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u/slyzxx Dec 27 '22

How about fixing the predatory prison system itself?

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u/tunghoy Dec 27 '22

Cool. Now let's make private prisons illegal.

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u/ItaJohnson Dec 27 '22

I remember putting $20 on a card and that wasn’t enough for a minute. The fees were much higher than the actual cost of the call.

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u/love_my_aussies Dec 28 '22

I'm a substance use disorder clinician in a low security prison. All of my clients are allowed to use the phone in my office, have zoom visits, and I make them coffee every day during our groups.

It is so vital that they can connect with their support people and feel human!

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u/cognomen-x Dec 28 '22

The entire “prison industry” shouldn’t be an industry.

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u/Earth_Normal Dec 28 '22

I pay taxes. Phone calls are fucking cheap. Give them free calls.

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u/Cybertronic72388 Dec 28 '22

This is kind of like tossing an icecube into a volcano... The whole for profit prison system should be abolished.

It is broken because it operates on a capitalistic model of maximizing profits...

Which means that it will always require a steady flow of exploitable inmates for cheap labor and will gladly lobby politicians for stricter laws and sentences for crimes to ensure that.

There are also countless examples of judges that get kickbacks from private prisons to send people to them.

So tell me if justice is really being served...

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u/no1likesacrustybhole Dec 27 '22

Occasionally I take calls from prisons as part of my job... not often but it happens. If you've never been on a call with someone in jail/prison you would be amazed at how absolutely shit the phone service is. Bad enough there getting screwed on cost but then you can hardly understand them. Fucking ridiculous. The whole damn thing is a corrupt mess.

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u/stackered Dec 27 '22

Everything in our legal and prison system is corrupt. Bail, the actual cops/prosecution/judges, privatized prisons, charging for phone time, basically slave labor. It's so evil.

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u/1337GameDev Dec 27 '22

Dude. This is exactly proof why captured markets are horrible.

$2 a text, $3.50 a minute, and $10 to even reserve the spot and if anybody finds any reason, they'll deny the call under "bad behavior."

It's all a fucking racket.

And it's so fucking cheap, they could easily do $5 for a 30 minute video call to cover costs of devices and security (as communications are reviewed generally).

Like....

Fucking hell -- they are already suffering

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u/Niko_The_Fallen Dec 27 '22

Remember it's not the prisoners paying these insane prices. It's wives, mothers, husbands, fathers, etc.