The Industrial Prison Complex is so corrupt that investigating phone charges is a Joke! How about investigating sub standard food. Or untrained Prison personnel ? With what they pay these people you get unqualified and yes sociopathic personnel. People who take these dangerous low paying jobs do it to fulfill unhealthy needs.
Privitizing our prisons is a political hand out to Corporate Greed !
Privitizing our prisons is a political hand out to Corporate Greed !
30
The prison industry and the phone industry both have lobbyists, and the major political parties' establishments serve them, not the citizens. Victimless crimes account for our incarcerating more people to enrich a prison industry. Why is it a surprise that our government then allows any business who chooses to do so to gouge the incarcerated?
Fed up with this? Feel the Bern!
Fed up with this? Feel the Bern!
28
If there's any question whether the corrections facilities are complicit in this shakedown just visit Securus website "Customer Testimonials". Comment after comment from sheriff's office and detention facilities gushing about how the service helped crack cases and freed up staff to do other duties. Nothing from the inmates or families who were forced to fund the "service". It's a sinister partnership between the law and those above the law against the poor and powerless.
When there's a call for higher taxes on the rich they cry it's a redistribution of wealth (an abundance of valuable possessions or money), when it's fleecing the last dollar from the poor it's capitalism. The wealth wouldn't need redistributed if weren't stolen from the masses in the first place.
When there's a call for higher taxes on the rich they cry it's a redistribution of wealth (an abundance of valuable possessions or money), when it's fleecing the last dollar from the poor it's capitalism. The wealth wouldn't need redistributed if weren't stolen from the masses in the first place.
52
Talk about ripping off a literally captive audience. These fees and excessive phone call charges need to be entirely stamped out. A penny per minute for a phone call, perhaps, just so that no one person monopolizes a phone. There should be no fees charged to a family putting some spending money in a prisoner's account. The family is not being punished! As to the prisoner, he or she is serving time; that's the punishment. Getting ripped off by a private company is not included and the CFPB should step in to shield this helpless population from these private sector predators. Just one more American disgrace.
64
It was talking with an American expat who lives in Europe (on a Salon.com comment thread). He referred to it as "The American Prison System" which his own son escaped to Germany, where he received subsidized trade instruction and is now raising a family. Which would not have been possible here.
The American prison system approaches the corruption of that in the Middle East. It is invested in creating conditions approaching slavery for unsuspecting and/or uneducated people. We don't see how insidious and evil it is because we are inside of it.
The American prison system approaches the corruption of that in the Middle East. It is invested in creating conditions approaching slavery for unsuspecting and/or uneducated people. We don't see how insidious and evil it is because we are inside of it.
23
Phone cost extortion is only one of the many problems that are a direct outcome of the privatization of prisons in America. As for-profit enterprises, prisons no longer have any incentive to rehabilitate or improve the lives of prisoners; doing so would directly undermine the goal of keeping prisons as full of inmates as possible at all times. For every function of government that is privatized, we will see more problems generated by the goal of generating profits-----regardless of the effect on either the prisoners or our nation's overall welfare.
33
I recently had the need to communicate with a prisoner in the Marin County Jail. It ended up costing me over $50 to send 5 emails and have two short phone calls. Beyond the expense were the ridicules protocols involved. I could only send email they could not return them. I could not call them they could only call me after I had to establish and funded several accounts. This is pure madness. It was impossible to coordinate. This in the context of trying to develop an effective release plan which was ultimately not possible. Its not only criminal gouging its utter disfunction on top of it.
34
It seems as if these communication obstacles would interfere with a person's right to effective counsel.
17
This abuse reaches much further down the chain of incarceration than prison. One of my sons was arrested on outstanding traffic warrants and called me from the local county jail. While I don't remember the amount, it felt at the time like it probably would have covered a significant share of his accumulated fines. I assure you it was obscenely high for the two or three minutes we spoke, separated by less than 10 miles of physical distance.
26
Boo hoo and blah blah. Those in prison should not be allowed contact with the outside world, except perhaps by written letter. The number of drug deals, intimidation of witnesses, and orders for revenge transmitted by phone should exclude the privilege of phone use for prisoners. They are prisoners for a reason.
1
Not only is our incarceration rate infamous--there are, per capita, more Americans locked up than were citizens in Stalin's Russia--any place with a high unemployment rate pressures the powers-that-be to build a prison. After that, nothing that is sold in its commissary is allowed in! Where is our congress in this struggle?
21
They are absent. They certainly don't consider it their "struggle."
8
This immoral abuse rests with every Shareholder who is profiting off these scams.
And that goes for the Health industry and Offense industries too
And that goes for the Health industry and Offense industries too
25
I don't know about everyone else, but I get so tired of the corruption. Luckily, there are people who are willing to look in to things like this and call them out.
28
Ahhh but these corporations have more rights than the poor. Move To Amend is a great organization trying to give the power back to the people. Until the people have as much rights as the companies stealing from us and poisoning our environments this sort of thing will be just the American Way of Doing Business.
30
I had a friend who got picked up in an illegal alien sweep. He called me collect to ask me to get his birth certificate for his attorney to bring to the detention center. That collect call, which lasted 1 min, was $44.
46
Corporations run this country, prisoners get the same shabby treatment we all do, just more of it.
What I find ironic is when Yertle the Turtle in the senate or Obama or the pundit class of the NYT express shock and dismay at the traction Trump and Sanders have achieved. It's a reflection of your complete failure to lead in a direction that benefits the bulk of the nation. And we are not even at the end of the beginning.
For prisoners sake, at least those incarcerated for victimless crimes, I hope we choose the non-facist route.
What I find ironic is when Yertle the Turtle in the senate or Obama or the pundit class of the NYT express shock and dismay at the traction Trump and Sanders have achieved. It's a reflection of your complete failure to lead in a direction that benefits the bulk of the nation. And we are not even at the end of the beginning.
For prisoners sake, at least those incarcerated for victimless crimes, I hope we choose the non-facist route.
11
Why should we be surprised? Abry, the company that own Securus states as its business model:
"…regardless of the end market being served our portfolio of companies exhibit certain specific characteristics:
High barriers to competitive entry
Predictable, recurring revenues-such as subscription like business with high customer retention rates."
Enough said?
"…regardless of the end market being served our portfolio of companies exhibit certain specific characteristics:
High barriers to competitive entry
Predictable, recurring revenues-such as subscription like business with high customer retention rates."
Enough said?
12
This isn't just about prisoners. The collusion of private corporations with state governments and federal agencies to rip off the poor and vulnerable is everywhere. Don’t identify with prisoners, some of whom may be in prison in the first place because they did not have money to pay a fine for a traffic ticket, or there was no public defender, or were caught selling trifling amounts of marijuana? Don’t worry, the corporate state and its allies are looking for ways to exploit everyone but the 1 % right now. Both the Republican party and the Democrat party have supported the economic exploitation of their own citizens in the interests of big business and the financial industry for decades now, the Republicans explicitly and enthusiastically, the Democrats, with the notable exceptions of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, implicitly and silently.
21
There is no need for this profiteering but it is but a part of the cottage industry that surrounds many of our Court institutions. On the criminal justice side, a jurisdiction, for less than a couple hundred dollars a month could provide phone services to inmates. Pennies per inmate for unlimited calling. The profit motive is abhorrent. The same for the private probation industry that adds fees at every turn for probationers.
But, that's not all. In the domestic law arena, there are therapists, guardians ad litem, parenting seminars and these add-ons not only drive up expenses, they result in greater attorney's fees and often little benefit.
The user fee system (also see add-ons to fines) is slowly choking off access to the courts for the most disadvantaged among us.
But, that's not all. In the domestic law arena, there are therapists, guardians ad litem, parenting seminars and these add-ons not only drive up expenses, they result in greater attorney's fees and often little benefit.
The user fee system (also see add-ons to fines) is slowly choking off access to the courts for the most disadvantaged among us.
22
Usually you have to sign up to make a call, and unless you're a trusteee, you're lucky to make one call a month. Rates were outrageous.
11
My family has had the misfortune of becoming acquainted with the New York City and New York State Departments of Correction.
The entire system from the lack of any attempts to provide ecucation, rehabilitation, counseling or adequate medical care for inmates to the gouging prices given to any attempt for families to maintain contact and provide support or encouragement or in some cases even basic needs to inmates is in itself criminal. Phones costs, assigning inmates to facilities that are so far away from family that visiting is difficult and expensive, arbitrarily refusing packages of food or other supplies because they do not meet "standards", are not the "right" color(although it is not written anywhere) or the inmate already has "too many" books. I witnessed a mother with 3 children being turned away from visiting because the limit is 4 visitors and the 2 year old child was too old to sit on his mother's lap. That was after taking a 6 hour bus trip. Consider the loss not only for the mother and children but for the inmate who needs that contact and support.
It is shocking and sad that our nation in looking at world statistics leads the world in the percentage of our population incarcerated and our recidivism rate. Certainly nothing to be proud of and definitely something that should be getting some attention from our politicians. Making money off of the pain of the less fortunate is in itself criminal.
The entire system from the lack of any attempts to provide ecucation, rehabilitation, counseling or adequate medical care for inmates to the gouging prices given to any attempt for families to maintain contact and provide support or encouragement or in some cases even basic needs to inmates is in itself criminal. Phones costs, assigning inmates to facilities that are so far away from family that visiting is difficult and expensive, arbitrarily refusing packages of food or other supplies because they do not meet "standards", are not the "right" color(although it is not written anywhere) or the inmate already has "too many" books. I witnessed a mother with 3 children being turned away from visiting because the limit is 4 visitors and the 2 year old child was too old to sit on his mother's lap. That was after taking a 6 hour bus trip. Consider the loss not only for the mother and children but for the inmate who needs that contact and support.
It is shocking and sad that our nation in looking at world statistics leads the world in the percentage of our population incarcerated and our recidivism rate. Certainly nothing to be proud of and definitely something that should be getting some attention from our politicians. Making money off of the pain of the less fortunate is in itself criminal.
27
While it is easy to sympathize with the prisoner and his/her family -have we forgotten what jail or prison represent? We as a society -who are quick to make excuses for people (by saying they are poor or are being exploited) seem to have overlooked that calling or texting or using the commissary,etc is ultimately a (Privilege) not a right. It's prison for goodness sake -the sense of entitlement should stop there. Where is the sense of punishment if you can speak to your loved at a fair market rate? If you can afford to pay the exorbitant rate, then so be it.... but if not- oh well. That's life. Instead of doing the obvious which is easy, let's use empathy and think of the victim too. On a side note though-using their health care should be free.
1
Such rates don't punish the inmates nearly as much as they punish the innocent family members. Paying fair market rates wouldn't make prison a vacation, especially considering length of calls, times of calls, number of calls are all heavily regulated by the prison system, regardless of these rates.
If people don't see prison as a deterrent, they aren't going to know about or much care that the phone system is rigged in favor of enriching phone companies. Maybe if these rates were going to help reimburse victims and their families, you might have an argument. But it doesn't. It goes into some company owner's pocket.
If people don't see prison as a deterrent, they aren't going to know about or much care that the phone system is rigged in favor of enriching phone companies. Maybe if these rates were going to help reimburse victims and their families, you might have an argument. But it doesn't. It goes into some company owner's pocket.
24
So are you suggesting that it is OK for companies to charge astronomical rates and thus make exorbinant profits because phone calls in prison are a "privilege." Using that some logic, any license that a state provides, such as a drivers license, is also a privilege, so then perhaps states should charge hundreds of dollars - let's $400 - for the privilege to drive a car. The problem is that when a society allows those with leverage to exploit the weakest individuals, it is just a matter of time before it encroaches on the majority of people. Be careful of what you wish for!
15
we've got to put a stop to this rampant greed, whether in these "prison industries" or among pharmaceutical companies or wherever. as bernie sanders' campaign success among younger voters makes clear, greed gives all of capitalism a bad name.
if they were smart, for that reason, republicans should be leading this "anti-greed" charge, instead of worrying about short-term campaign contributions from the greed industries.
if they were smart, for that reason, republicans should be leading this "anti-greed" charge, instead of worrying about short-term campaign contributions from the greed industries.
15
Outrageous! Prisoners and their families have enough grief and financial difficulties without these rapacious corporations feeding off them. All of services prisoners and their families need should cost LESS than to the general public, not more. Corporate greed in the U.S. is a moral and social issue that must be confronted at every turn. We must get our politicians out of bed with these cruel, soul-less 'masters of the universe,' to legislate against these kinds of aggressions against some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Private prisons and private companies supplying these kinds of services must be reined in or dispensed with.
27
We must confront shareholder Greed if we really want to see change. Take any corp mentioned and look it up on Yahoo Finance and then set the chart to max and you'll often see a graph shooting for the moon.
Will investors divest from a prison corp gouging prisoners to insure their profiting?
Will investors divest from a prison corp gouging prisoners to insure their profiting?
8
"All of services prisoners and their families need should cost LESS than to the general public, not more."
I think you're going a little overboard there. Law-abiding citizens being charged more than offenders, really? I don't agree on private companies being allowed a monopoly to gouge anyone, jailbird or common citizen; but how do you justify pushing it, and putting the incentive on being in jail rather than outside?
I think you're going a little overboard there. Law-abiding citizens being charged more than offenders, really? I don't agree on private companies being allowed a monopoly to gouge anyone, jailbird or common citizen; but how do you justify pushing it, and putting the incentive on being in jail rather than outside?
2
Phone and finances are just the tip of the iceberg of the prison industrial complex spawned by the war on drugs. We have built extra courthouses staffed by extra judges, court clerks, bailiffs and lawyers all of which are supplied by stationers etc. Prisons are built and expanded providing employment in rural economically depressed communities. These prisons must be supplied with everything from food to laundry powder. Drug offences have feed a lot of mouths.
10
I CAN afford the phone call rates (because I'm well employed), though the prices are outrageous and I should not be put in that position. I can't imagine how it must be for the poor and vulnerable among us. This "system" punishes the family members of the person incarcerated because the family is the one paying the bills. The whole process is another way to exploit vulnerable people.
I had a mentally ill family member call me from prison to try to get bailed out for making a mistake and getting arrested (marijuana possession). The phone call fees are incredibly expensive and the person on the inside, especially one already suffering from mental illness, is severely tormented if he/she cannot get a hold of someone to help him/her or cannot easily speak to someone for help... and the jailers also don't let those hurting take their prescribed meds while in there so they can practically go insane.
The customer service at the politically assigned phone company is horrendous (you think Comcast is bad!). They owed me a refund and I never saw that; the phone company in question just ripped me off with no accounting or receipts provided. It is so obviously a politically rendered contract because of the extreme costs and the lack of any customer service; and the vulnerable have nowhere to turn. The whole matter is despicable. We simply treat poor and unfortunate folks terribly in this country and it makes me feel ashamed; it's all about political power to facilitate money grubbing.
I had a mentally ill family member call me from prison to try to get bailed out for making a mistake and getting arrested (marijuana possession). The phone call fees are incredibly expensive and the person on the inside, especially one already suffering from mental illness, is severely tormented if he/she cannot get a hold of someone to help him/her or cannot easily speak to someone for help... and the jailers also don't let those hurting take their prescribed meds while in there so they can practically go insane.
The customer service at the politically assigned phone company is horrendous (you think Comcast is bad!). They owed me a refund and I never saw that; the phone company in question just ripped me off with no accounting or receipts provided. It is so obviously a politically rendered contract because of the extreme costs and the lack of any customer service; and the vulnerable have nowhere to turn. The whole matter is despicable. We simply treat poor and unfortunate folks terribly in this country and it makes me feel ashamed; it's all about political power to facilitate money grubbing.
19
I just recently ran into this incredible ripoff when an employee of mine got arrested for driving without a license (again). I learned over the course of 2 weeks that prisoners have almost no recourse to any kind of communication. In order to get a visitor they must be listed with prison officials by the prisoner him- or herself, and they must provide BIRTHDATES of any potential visitors. ??? I can't see that there is any purpose in this rule besides holding prisoners incommunicado; sometimes people don't even know the birth dates of family members, let alone acquaintances who might be in a position to help. I received a "free" one-minute phone call from this person, and according to my watch it lasted exactly 36 seconds before being interrupted. I had no idea these practices existed, as I am certain they did not 30 years before when I taught for a while in local jails. What are people thinking? How does this kind of thing help anyone but the usurers?
25
Free enterprise and abhorrence of "regulation" should not be changed.
Where's Elizabeth Warren when you need her?
3
Hate regulation because it is EVIL BIG GOVERNMENT? If so, you must think this example of privatization and freedom is just dandy.
10
More evidence that the Prison Industrial Complex serves monied interests more than the cause of its ostensible "rehabilitation." After having worked for fifteen years as an instructor in the Prison Industrial Complex, I cannot empathize enough how damaging the system in the U.S., has become. Virtually the whole system is geared to inspire and continue recidivism. Here is just another example. I have known many families who suffered because they could not afford to accept the collect call from an incarcerated loved one, and children who suffered becasue they could not talk to their incarcerated fathers or mothers simply becasue the fees charged for phone call for incarcerated people were way higher than those for people living on the outside. As the author points out, there is an overwhelming amount of statistical evidence that suggests that incarcerated people who stay in touch with families on the outside are less like to return to prison, and yet, these jacked-up rates makes it way more difficult. So who profits? Certainly not the tax payer who has to subsidized the people returning to prison for lack of resources or family contact when they are released.
22
Spot on,Msnuela. If anyone thinks that the prison industry or law enforcement wants to decriminalize drug use, think again. The more offenders,the greater the security and entrenchment of the "corrections complex" . To self perpetuate is to render both continuity SNF immortality.
4
Thank you for writing this which I hope will bring answers to the grievance. I see now that Texas is not the only state whose prisoners (many of them mentally ill and poor) are kept from the comfort of communication with folks who love and care. Unconscionable!
11
Just another example of theft from the poor going straight into the pockets of the rich.
What service related business or industry today doesn't do the same?
It's as if there's a cabal of people sitting around in offices around this country trying to think up and scheme how they can steal more from the pockets of the poor or everyone for that matter. But especially the poor.
Whether it's banking, pay day loans, furniture rental, jail bonds, court costs, lawyers, car loans/repos, on and on. You will pay heavily and be penalized more in EVERY way if you are poor. We have debtors prisons for profit today. This ensures business. Despicable bottom feeders.
Keeping the poor even more poor is very good business in America.
What service related business or industry today doesn't do the same?
It's as if there's a cabal of people sitting around in offices around this country trying to think up and scheme how they can steal more from the pockets of the poor or everyone for that matter. But especially the poor.
Whether it's banking, pay day loans, furniture rental, jail bonds, court costs, lawyers, car loans/repos, on and on. You will pay heavily and be penalized more in EVERY way if you are poor. We have debtors prisons for profit today. This ensures business. Despicable bottom feeders.
Keeping the poor even more poor is very good business in America.
3
With over two decades representing federal criminal defendants, I can vouch for every word written in this article. In the contract detention centers used in my district, "global tel link" charges over $3.00 a minute on collect calls.
This is pure exploitation of the politically powerless, prisoners' families. It goes well beyond phones and includes commissary and items like foot ware and other necessaries that the public thinks jails provide but do not. The humiliation does not stop at price gouging. The items sold have sleazy ironic names, like a deodorant called "Maximum Security".
Prisons have long been a place of exploitation of prisoners. (I recall a piece by H.L. Mencken describing how the Baltimore police would round up and arrests tradesmen when the jails needed paint and repairs.) Really, global tel link and prison commissary are just examples of the lowlifes that run corporate and financial America.
This is pure exploitation of the politically powerless, prisoners' families. It goes well beyond phones and includes commissary and items like foot ware and other necessaries that the public thinks jails provide but do not. The humiliation does not stop at price gouging. The items sold have sleazy ironic names, like a deodorant called "Maximum Security".
Prisons have long been a place of exploitation of prisoners. (I recall a piece by H.L. Mencken describing how the Baltimore police would round up and arrests tradesmen when the jails needed paint and repairs.) Really, global tel link and prison commissary are just examples of the lowlifes that run corporate and financial America.
9
Glad to see this critique of the outrageous system. Families who want to stay connected and provide their loved one with decent food have no choice but to pay these fees. It is a regressive system of leaching off the poor that should not be allowed.
2
Just thinking that if these people did not commit crimes, they may not have to worry about the price of a phone call. My phone service is pretty cheap here on the outs.
1
I understand your comment but think of it this way. Everyone would be better served if those in prison once there are released never have to go back again because they are getting what they need to succeed in the outside world. A lot of tax payer money, which could be better spent elsewhere like education, healthcare, fixing our roads etc goes into the prison system. So maybe providing a better system while in prison would pay off the long run.
4
Couldn't agree more.
This system also applies to those who await trial. In fact many of them will be found not-guilty, i.e. to not have committed crimes. Not only criminals are ripped off.
5
the industry of ripping off prison inmates is more widespread than this. whole companies exist to supply inmates with jerky and ramen, soda and gum and candy, the things they eat instead of the dire prison food. inmates are paid pennies an hour to do necessary work.
2
Another example of organizations taking advantage of the poor. It takes forever to create regulations to assist the poor with pay day lenders. Based on the content of this article these financial transaction work like "pay day lenders" for the incarcerated and their families, which statistically, are poor people.
While most prisoners are paying their debt to society, it's sad we have no shame in taking advantage of stripping them and their family of any remaining dignity.
While most prisoners are paying their debt to society, it's sad we have no shame in taking advantage of stripping them and their family of any remaining dignity.
6
You are right about the fact most of our fellow citizens do not know of the fact the folks with the least (for the most part) are charged the most. But this practice is common among our poor. The government ought to be ashamed that this not only is allowed but is pointed to by government as a good thing. md
5
Thanks for sharing Chandra. I think price gouging is an understatement however. It is a severe perversion in our "modern" economy where there is zero competition, it benefits a few corporations, hurts families (a lot!) and one can argue it foments bad behavior in prison by creating another level of pay to play in a very difficult environment. It seems that people go to prison not to repay a debt to society, but to line the pockets of a few select individuals. The tax payer gets to pay for supplying the demand for the corporations to exploit. This is all wrong.
9
It seems there is always someone out there waiting to gouge the next guy, especially if he/she not part of the monopoly.
5
Prisoners are literally what is known as "captive customers" in a financial sense.
The whole prison industry is fundamentally corrupted and unfair, built to milk the poor for even more money. With prisoners unable to vote and their families often not voting, and the service providers greasing the political wheels, there are no incentives whatsoever to change this.
The whole prison industry is fundamentally corrupted and unfair, built to milk the poor for even more money. With prisoners unable to vote and their families often not voting, and the service providers greasing the political wheels, there are no incentives whatsoever to change this.
11
Here's a thought - stay out of prison.
1
There's always one like you, with no understanding about how it is that many people wind up in prison, much less caring about their families who suffer when their loved one is in prison, whether for good reason or not. If you don't care about the prisoners, do you have enough heart to care about the millions of children whose parents are in jail or prison in this country that has the highest incarcerated rate in the world? Can you imagine what it means to them to be able to talk with that parent by phone?
11
Nice solution Joe, you sound like a guy with the answers. No grey areas in your world, just black and white. Here's an idea, get some empathy.
9
This makes no sense whatsover, and I can imagine that it ultimately may lead to higher costs to taxpayers. Let's say that you are a young man convicted of a crime and go to prison. Would not frequent, lengthy communication with your family (spouse, children, parents, whatever) be a generally beneficial force, as children would get reassurance that they can still talk to their dad, and the inmate's connection with their family would make it more likely that they would want to avoid committing future crimes? At the very least, I can't see any obvious downside to this communication provided that it's monitored and supervised.
To look at it another way, aren't we punishing the wrong people when we don't allow children to talk to their dad relatively freely? What crime have THEY committed?
Prisons often call themselves "correctional", but is that what they really are? In this case, the answer is a resounding "no".
To look at it another way, aren't we punishing the wrong people when we don't allow children to talk to their dad relatively freely? What crime have THEY committed?
Prisons often call themselves "correctional", but is that what they really are? In this case, the answer is a resounding "no".
9
I have had experience with this criminal system of price gouging in collusion with the prison system. I had a newphew who spent time in a youth correctional facility. I paid for his phone calls which at times came to around $30 for a 5 minute call!! I really feel sorry for the families of inmates in our penal system. Most of them cannot pay such fees, do not have credit or debit cards and are not able to visit in person.
Yes, this travesty penalizes the familes. If the system causes inmates such a separation from communicating with families, such isolation has a lasting negative impact and leads to hopelessness, which impacts prison discipline and social order. Being poor continues to be the most expensive way of life. You are exploited every day by those in power as well as your own people.
Many state systems stopped allowing inmates to call home collect because they and the phone companies saw a way to make more money from poor families. What next? Will they start charging families admission fees to enter the visiting areas? Oh, and parking charges?
Yes, this travesty penalizes the familes. If the system causes inmates such a separation from communicating with families, such isolation has a lasting negative impact and leads to hopelessness, which impacts prison discipline and social order. Being poor continues to be the most expensive way of life. You are exploited every day by those in power as well as your own people.
Many state systems stopped allowing inmates to call home collect because they and the phone companies saw a way to make more money from poor families. What next? Will they start charging families admission fees to enter the visiting areas? Oh, and parking charges?
9
Marx was right - capital is inexorable in its drive to valorize itself; it knows no satisfaction; there has no morality or sense of proportion. I would say "shame on you" to the phone companies, but there is no one to hear me. That line has most certainly NEVER been connected.
7
Thanks for this piece, so true and so tragic. Why aren't we as a country exploring ways to support prisoners for eventual return, which includes staying in touch? Instead we penalize them and their families and friends again in addition to incarceration with crazy fees for everything.
5
Haven't we known this for 25 years?
7
The whole prison system is a business. Huge corporations like Corrections Corporation of America, run many of our prisons as for-profit enterprises.
Since the product is prisoners, do you think these corporations might lobby for things like prison time for non-violent drug offenses, even the mildest of illegal drugs? America leads the world in numbers in our prisons.
This well-written article shows another sleazy aspect of the process.
I look forward to reading your book!
Since the product is prisoners, do you think these corporations might lobby for things like prison time for non-violent drug offenses, even the mildest of illegal drugs? America leads the world in numbers in our prisons.
This well-written article shows another sleazy aspect of the process.
I look forward to reading your book!
11
The entire so-called 'correctional system' is mislabeled: It's a collectional system.
Companies such as Securus surely wouldn't admit it, but they are far from impartial on the issue of recidivism. They WANT parolees to return to prison so they can be fleeced again!
Companies such as Securus surely wouldn't admit it, but they are far from impartial on the issue of recidivism. They WANT parolees to return to prison so they can be fleeced again!
16
There ought to be special place in infamy reserved for those who made the gouging of prison phone calls to family possible. The insensitivity and the institutionalized greed make me think of a narco-state, not the America I'm brought up to believe. Phone companies, payment services, and jails had to collude extensively with the simple premise: "F*** the families."
I'm a family member who pressed 1 to accept family calls. My average phone bill for prison calls exceeded $160/month for several years. Distributed across my entire family that was probably double. Connection fees, payment fees, and minute fees drove us well north of $0.25/minute, something around 10 times the cost of a "normal" calling card. At least we could choose to afford it - prisoners and family will tell you how critical it is to have that link to home.
It would be a service to society to know more about the specific sad, self-serving individuals who made this type of abuse possible, state to state.
I'm a family member who pressed 1 to accept family calls. My average phone bill for prison calls exceeded $160/month for several years. Distributed across my entire family that was probably double. Connection fees, payment fees, and minute fees drove us well north of $0.25/minute, something around 10 times the cost of a "normal" calling card. At least we could choose to afford it - prisoners and family will tell you how critical it is to have that link to home.
It would be a service to society to know more about the specific sad, self-serving individuals who made this type of abuse possible, state to state.
16
Doesn't the Bush family have some part in prison concessions and phone service?
1
When will this country figure out that men should no longer be in charge of everything or anything?? This is another case of toxic testosterone poisoning: make me big and hard, and who cares about anyone else.
Let us not forget that the criteria for determining who wins the contract is the amount of money returned to the Bureau of Prisons as a "commission" (aka kickback.) In Ohio that amounted to $15 million in a recent year. So this is just another way government funds itself on the backs of those least able to pay.
5
Nothing new here. There's beaucoup bucks in fleecing the less powerful groups in our society by those with much more power and incessant greed.
“The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale also has the power to control the government to legalize their robbery,” – Eugene V Debs, 1918.
“The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale also has the power to control the government to legalize their robbery,” – Eugene V Debs, 1918.
3
American capitalism is predatory. Forget cable companies. Prisoners, sick people—they are the truly gouged by corporations. The game is indeed rigged, and the other side is a team of vampires.
5
“I was in prison and you came to visit me … I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Matthew 25:36, 40
Teachings of a great Master.
Matthew 25:36, 40
Teachings of a great Master.
6
Highway robbery! Just like the rest of our "buyer beware" economic system.
6
I am an attorney who dabbles, okay neck deep, in indigent criminal defense. I have a choice: either ignore my clients' calls or set up a $15, one minute call on my card and likely never see a penny in return. It's a form of extortion. Try getting someone on the phone at Securus; this is a company that found a vulnerable population of consumers and preyed viciously upon them.
12
What is stopping the NYTs from taking up justice for American prisoners? The system is rife with absurd exploitive inequities, cruel injustice, medieval policy and practices.
What this tells us about many of our countrymen is that they are operating at a sub human level where they excuse their own despicable behavior with the weakest rational.
New York Times show us the courage of your convictions, run a front page series on prisons. The reality that is our prison system today is beyond disgusting, it is reprehensible.
The expectation that prisoners return to society as productive citizens after what they are put through is the product of low intellect as well as an unbalanced (ind) world view.
Of course we will hear from the "don't coddle the inmates" crowd who fail to make important yet basic distinctions starting with the fact that you are entitled to act like a criminal yourself towards someone who broke the law.
What this tells us about many of our countrymen is that they are operating at a sub human level where they excuse their own despicable behavior with the weakest rational.
New York Times show us the courage of your convictions, run a front page series on prisons. The reality that is our prison system today is beyond disgusting, it is reprehensible.
The expectation that prisoners return to society as productive citizens after what they are put through is the product of low intellect as well as an unbalanced (ind) world view.
Of course we will hear from the "don't coddle the inmates" crowd who fail to make important yet basic distinctions starting with the fact that you are entitled to act like a criminal yourself towards someone who broke the law.
5
Your comment is spot on, thanks.
2
It is a crime, all right, but it's corporate with the complicity of government. That complicity, which exists in too many ways even to know without much dedicated research, is why it's expensive to be poor and very cheap to be very rich.
13
This is what reagan and the GOP did to America. They destroyed government by the people, which protected the people from the other people who wanted to take unfair advantage to make money, in favor of oligarchy.
3
If only we were a Christian country with charity in our hearts for all.
16
I am not christain but I understand the point you are trying to say.
2
The whole criminal justice system has been corrupted by the commercialization of the penal system for profit and more money for cops and corrections.
29
Quite simply, this is outrageous and dispicable.
14
Thank you for the article Chandra. Unfortunately, since the phone services and financial transactions are a completely unregulated monopoly, there is need to impose regulations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FCC to limit the amount of fees charged for transactions. Inmate phone services is a vital service for both inmates and the jails/prisons, and the prisons do have a true cost in providing this service. The FCC was fair in their ruling, but the larger inmate phone providers cannot operate under tight regulations as their business model will be constrained.
Once the transaction fees and calling rates are brought within reason, it stands to reason the jails and prisons will begin to realize their inmates are happier and more occupied with the services, resulting in easier management of their wards.
Once the transaction fees and calling rates are brought within reason, it stands to reason the jails and prisons will begin to realize their inmates are happier and more occupied with the services, resulting in easier management of their wards.
4
The "constraint" of any business model does not trump the more fundamental right granted far earlier by our system of government (regardless of how often sadistic law enforcement officers and wardens have failed to uphold it): the very clear prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The corporate profiteers' cadre of well-paid lawyers have exploited an "FCC loophole"- but the FCC does not even belong in this loop. If there is no other immediate relief, prisoners should be represented by class actions that not only return the excessive fees paid but demand damages for the excessive violations of their very basic rights.
2
Fleecing the captive audience. And with our harsh prison sentences and guilty for being black society we have yet another opportunity to ensure the wealthy get wealthier. If only we could ensure the prison administrators paid the same fee structure in their lives.
2
My son was in prison in Colorado in 2005. Financially, we could afford the outrageous price-gouging for telephone calls, but the burden on others did not escape us. I contacted the Colorado ACLU about this issue, and received a form letter that this industry did not warrant their (ACLU) attention. Odd that a billion dollar financial impact on the poor, and the negative impact on re-entry to society did not meet the threshold for an examination into violation of civil liberties. The affected population must not meet the criteria of othese committed civil libertarians.
8
The ACLU exists on donations and fees awarded by the courts.
It's obvious there wasn't enough money in this issue to justify the effort.
It's obvious there wasn't enough money in this issue to justify the effort.
2
Here is a related issue, not as severe as yours but still troubling.
When I was an undergraduate, there was a milk machine in the basement of the dorm. You could choose between a half pint of whole milk, chocolate milk or nonfat milk and the machine would dispense the desired variety.
Now the milk machines are gone in the university where I teach. True, some people are allergic to milk, but for a majority of Americans it is a healthy source of protein and vitamins, far better than the dozen varieties of soft drinks you can buy.
The students are not prisoners of course. But they are shopping in a controlled market.
Perhaps if Mr. Cuomo agreed that CUNY needs better funding, the university would not need to use such odd sources of revenue as Coke and Pepsi sold to a captive audience.
When I was an undergraduate, there was a milk machine in the basement of the dorm. You could choose between a half pint of whole milk, chocolate milk or nonfat milk and the machine would dispense the desired variety.
Now the milk machines are gone in the university where I teach. True, some people are allergic to milk, but for a majority of Americans it is a healthy source of protein and vitamins, far better than the dozen varieties of soft drinks you can buy.
The students are not prisoners of course. But they are shopping in a controlled market.
Perhaps if Mr. Cuomo agreed that CUNY needs better funding, the university would not need to use such odd sources of revenue as Coke and Pepsi sold to a captive audience.
4
This exploitation is unconscionable. I wonder how those who work for companies like Jpay are able to sleep at night.
8
I work in public policy.
I had a close family member who was incarcerated for a year.
Do you know how rare it is for those two statements to be side by side?
It's truly criminal, the way that the system profits off the families of the incarcerated population. And the people making the policy have precious little context for it.
I had a close family member who was incarcerated for a year.
Do you know how rare it is for those two statements to be side by side?
It's truly criminal, the way that the system profits off the families of the incarcerated population. And the people making the policy have precious little context for it.
12
I'm surprised not that this sort of conduct by service providers exists, but that none of those writing in have fully connected the dots. That our prison system has been privatized is shameful, but what is utterly shocking is the the fact that the very commercial enterprises that profit from incarceration gave been among the biggest lobbyists urging greater rates of incarceration and longer sentences. Together with exploiting a vulnerable population, it's Capitalism's underbelly. It ain't pretty.
10
"I'm surprised not that this sort of conduct by service providers exists, but that none of those writing in have fully connected the dots. That our prison system" Some of us manage to stay on topic when we write. This article is not about the fairness of drug laws, the fairness of sentencing, subcontracting of incarceration responsibilities or any other off topic in the comments.
It's about how prisoner's families are being ripped off by prison systems that get residual payments when prisoner make telephone calls. These arrangements are made with state, county and city operated prisons as well as the contractors.
We do connect the dots but the other dots are not the subjects at hand.
It's about how prisoner's families are being ripped off by prison systems that get residual payments when prisoner make telephone calls. These arrangements are made with state, county and city operated prisons as well as the contractors.
We do connect the dots but the other dots are not the subjects at hand.
I) Like most private sector firms, Correction Corporation of America (CCA) has an interesting income statement structure. Its profit or bottom-line number is determined by the following simple subtraction. Total expenses are deducted from total revenues (its top-line number) to determine its net income or periodic profit. II) To maximize its total revenues, CCA must charge a higher price per cell or it must sell more occupied cells. In a time of stark governmental cutbacks at all levels, price per cell increases will be minimal. Thus, to increases its revenues the quantity of cell space sold must be increased. III) Since it can also increase its profit via sharply reducing its expenses, at a fixed level of revenues; a cost reduction plan reducing prisoner services would help achieve such a goal. But, such a plan would probably increase prisoner recidivism rates. IV) So, such an income statement structure results in an inherent conflict of interest between the stakeholders of CCA. Its common shareholders' interests are maximized via higher ROIs from their stock purchases via increased prison populations, and a cost reduction strategy in this period of fiscal budgetary restraint. Yet the prison population itself, which is served by CCA, will likely see an increase in its recidivism rate at the expense of future ROIs to this productive human capital as costs decline; which will act to increase the future prison population. [March 21, 2016 M 11:07 am Greenville NC]
3
For profit prisons have purchased their way into society, any elected official will be had pressed to deny this. And as usual profit gets in the way of any mission. You can talk about prisons for the rest of your years, its a huge ongoing problem with no solutions, locking criminals up for profit is not a solution!
5
Next time you start ranting about Bernie Sanders being a socialist, remember whose interests that socialism benefits, the laps all that money eventually comes to rest in. Even welfare recipients have that money pass right thru them like they weren't even there and on into the economy at large and into the treasuries and stock appreciation of where the money is spent. Then, as with this issue, the lobbies hound legislatures about keeping the funds coming. Funny how that works, the biggest advocates for socialism are corporations.
2
The Securus CEO is Richard E. Smith.
Also, Securus is cheap with its own company. It had a majorly software hack recently.
Its HQ is in Dallas, and according to Wiki, contracts to 2,600 (!) prisons.
Also, Securus is cheap with its own company. It had a majorly software hack recently.
Its HQ is in Dallas, and according to Wiki, contracts to 2,600 (!) prisons.
1
These people are prisoners for a reason. Put in a phone system and limit calls. Initiate the necessary mandated requirements. This does not need to be a big problem.
3
" This does not need to be a big problem."
it is because there is the greedy government searching for ever increasing revenue.
it is because there is the greedy government searching for ever increasing revenue.
3
I know a boy that was put in jail for stupid teenage pranks. Dumb, but hardly dangerous. Both of his parents were drunks, and never cared for him- it was left for him to watch his little sister. Also, we lived in a small town, so the town police knew the whole family. Any time anything , mostly vandalism of street signs, happened, they'd pick up this kid. His parents never visited him, so he'd call my kids- collect. The phone bills were unbelievable! I felt bad, but told him he'd have to write.
When he got out, I told him he'd be smarter to move out of town, as they were waiting to get him if he jay walked.
I'm really not defending him, but I saw how sad it really was. Dumb stuff that when I was young, we would have been grounded for, maybe " scared" by a local cop. Now they make $$ off him.
When he got out, I told him he'd be smarter to move out of town, as they were waiting to get him if he jay walked.
I'm really not defending him, but I saw how sad it really was. Dumb stuff that when I was young, we would have been grounded for, maybe " scared" by a local cop. Now they make $$ off him.
6
Our privately contracted prison system is a capitalistic nightmare. The Democrats started it with the Clintons' war that was NOT on drugs, but on "super-predators" who used crack cocaine--oh the horror! While the wealthy openly used powdered cocaine without retribution, a "young buck" with a rock of crack cocaine--the SAME chemical-was imprisoned now for life.
Now we needed more prisons for all these newly named predators--so private contractors had "pay for play" schemes with our governors. Job creators!
The USA has 5% of the world's population but has 25% of ALL prisoners in the world in OUR prison complex. Well we needed more prisons to incarcerate the financiers who brought our global banking system crashing down with bundled sub-prime mortgage loans--right? No. One small time banker was imprisoned while the rest got obscene bonuses from us--the public--for banks too big to fail.
Our prisons are filled with minorities because no one cares that it's street kids, gang bangers that are incarcerated. Broken windows philosophy--make America safe...for white people.
Approximately 12–13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 37% of prison inmates of the 2.2 million male inmates as of 2014 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014).
After serving insanely long prison terms they come out NOT being able to vote, NOT being able to secure many jobs-no student loans--ruined for life. Rape in prison is considered funny! How is that humorous?
Repulsive!
Now we needed more prisons for all these newly named predators--so private contractors had "pay for play" schemes with our governors. Job creators!
The USA has 5% of the world's population but has 25% of ALL prisoners in the world in OUR prison complex. Well we needed more prisons to incarcerate the financiers who brought our global banking system crashing down with bundled sub-prime mortgage loans--right? No. One small time banker was imprisoned while the rest got obscene bonuses from us--the public--for banks too big to fail.
Our prisons are filled with minorities because no one cares that it's street kids, gang bangers that are incarcerated. Broken windows philosophy--make America safe...for white people.
Approximately 12–13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 37% of prison inmates of the 2.2 million male inmates as of 2014 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014).
After serving insanely long prison terms they come out NOT being able to vote, NOT being able to secure many jobs-no student loans--ruined for life. Rape in prison is considered funny! How is that humorous?
Repulsive!
6
I want to emphasize that this financial burden usually falls most heavily on the families of inmates who can ill afford to pay these outrageous rates. Some might say that the prisoners deserve whatever punishment they get, but the families have done nothing wrong. So why should they pay so heavily to talk to their loved one?
23
I have an idea. How about, jails and prisons being special places, all the profits from all the services prisoners purchase--phone privileges, commissary, what have you--be channeled to real drug rehabilitation, counseling, decent living quarters and meaningful skill development for an eventual return to society, in most cases, or a better life on the inside. Hmmm. Who does that so successfully? Oh yes, Norway, I think.
Why can't the USA be more like Norway? For example, we don't have to feed prisoners expensive food; but it shouldn't be disgusting food. While prisons are built for the purpose of punishment, still they should model the example of a decent life for a prisoner's redemption and eventual return to society.
If I were running the world, the lowlifes and politicians, making a usurious buck off the back of a drug-addicted thief, would be on the inside, and the addict would be paying down a debt to society, earning redemption and a path into meaningful citizenship. But where's the profit in that?
Well, to answer my own question, a safer, kinder society is its own reward.
Why can't the USA be more like Norway? For example, we don't have to feed prisoners expensive food; but it shouldn't be disgusting food. While prisons are built for the purpose of punishment, still they should model the example of a decent life for a prisoner's redemption and eventual return to society.
If I were running the world, the lowlifes and politicians, making a usurious buck off the back of a drug-addicted thief, would be on the inside, and the addict would be paying down a debt to society, earning redemption and a path into meaningful citizenship. But where's the profit in that?
Well, to answer my own question, a safer, kinder society is its own reward.
10
The sad part is that 60 percent of the inmates should not even be in prisons. They ended up there because society let them fall though the cracks, the fell victim to the quotas counties have to fill to keep prisons full. They suffered bad legal representation and they are victims of the idiotic laws we have that make us the Number One Nation in the world with the highest per capita incarceration percentage. No wonder it is such good business and it gets better when the prisoners are released. They will be on probation where every step is monitored and the fees associated with that are more than a guy fresh out of prison can make in a week in a fast food joint IF he could get a job there.
12
According to Securus's website, the company has been purchase and sold several times to equity investment companies. Its current owner is Abry Partners. So, this is an excellent example of the extortion of money from the 99% that goes to the pockets of the 1%.
57
I was almost tempted to read the whole article but then I thought "In what way are the poor not taken advantage of by the legal system?" I couldn't think of one. Add phone service to the list. I wonder what percentage of GDP all the rip offs of the poor represents. From rent to own, pay day lending, pawn shops, reverse mortgage, casinos, lotteries, bail bonds, commercial prisons... the list goes on and on and on with the legal system hard at work to protect the predators rather than the people they prey on.
10
Keynes said that - Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
Most wicked by a long shot. We reward these guys with praise and admiration. They are really the cockroaches of society.
Most wicked by a long shot. We reward these guys with praise and admiration. They are really the cockroaches of society.
14
Yes, these companies for the most part are taking advantage of people in desperate circumstances. My buddy was in San Diego jail, phone rates were at least $1 per minute. Now he's in state prison, where the phone contractor is GTL. Much better rates, I believe about 8 cents per minute.
7
This is despicable. Set up a PC with Skype on it and these calls would cost 2 cents a minute. Giving each prisoner 1 hour of free phone time per month would cost $1.20 a month -- hardly a major expense if it helped to keep the peace in jails and help people's readjustment.
And that's assuming the person on the other end didn't have a Skype account too, which anyone with a smartphone can get. If they did, the calls would of course be free.
There is no excuse for there to be any charge at all.
And that's assuming the person on the other end didn't have a Skype account too, which anyone with a smartphone can get. If they did, the calls would of course be free.
There is no excuse for there to be any charge at all.
10
One thing the system needs is a means of recording prisoner's calls. That would be a necessary cost and needs to be paid for. A system that restricts their calls to an approved list would need to be purchased as well.
Correct! This is gouging, that should be unacceptable--and illegal.
And here our government is complicit, a willing partner in the robbery.
Regrettably, gouging has become a very common business model in the US today. Is that due to a failure of good new ideas? an unwillingness to work hard? the idea that only the largest corporations and the 1% can prosper? an abandonment of morals and a willingness to cheat?
We used to rely on government regulation to limit or prevent much gouging.
The false but widespread idea these days--that all government except the military is bad--is responsible for the "success" of this corrupt "business model".
And here our government is complicit, a willing partner in the robbery.
Regrettably, gouging has become a very common business model in the US today. Is that due to a failure of good new ideas? an unwillingness to work hard? the idea that only the largest corporations and the 1% can prosper? an abandonment of morals and a willingness to cheat?
We used to rely on government regulation to limit or prevent much gouging.
The false but widespread idea these days--that all government except the military is bad--is responsible for the "success" of this corrupt "business model".
9
I was once involved in a procurement for mobile data equipment for a sheriff's department. The company I worked for was an indisputable key supplier in that area. We prepared a full proposal with engineering work, carefully detailed pricing, and so on--as one would expect for such an important procurement. ATT and got the business with a phony police car set up, a brochure, and a price sheet. Why? Because they tied the police car procurement to the jail phone operation profit-sharing with the county. Who paid for the new equipment? The inmates and their families did. Just another example of how this insidious jail phone system works in real life.
24
This has been the way AT&T has always done business with government.
I stopped quoting government work years ago because too many of the Request For Proposals were written in such a way that AT&T was the only vendor that could meet the "requirements". Another reason to stop bidding was being asked to bid to satisfy the state law which required government entities get 3 bids. You weren't going to get the bid because the contract had already been awarded secretly. Here in Charlotte the entire IT department for the city was fired for taking kickbacks from AT&T a few years ago.
I stopped quoting government work years ago because too many of the Request For Proposals were written in such a way that AT&T was the only vendor that could meet the "requirements". Another reason to stop bidding was being asked to bid to satisfy the state law which required government entities get 3 bids. You weren't going to get the bid because the contract had already been awarded secretly. Here in Charlotte the entire IT department for the city was fired for taking kickbacks from AT&T a few years ago.
1
This kind of behavior is a shame on our country. When Raul Castro says that Cuba has a different idea of what constitutes human rights abuses, this is the kind of behavior they have in mind. How can we pretend to be a beacon of human rights when we act like this?
39
NYT editorials read like a list of Republican failures: our despicable industrial/prison system to lead poisoning of children via antiquated infrastructure, to a failed educational system, Paul Ryan's spin on tax breaks for the richest, on and on - it all correlates to Republican con-men enriching themselves and posturing rather than doing the work of the people.
30
It is not quite so simple. Our Democratic governor is holding up funding for the City University of New York, in a state which is reliably blue.
But when I visit the University of Indiana in Bloomington, THAT university is far better supported than CUNY.
Let us please not make every issue a partisan issue.
But when I visit the University of Indiana in Bloomington, THAT university is far better supported than CUNY.
Let us please not make every issue a partisan issue.
3
There is little difference between the current crop of Democrats and Republicans, Sanders and Warren excluded. Don't be so high and mighty, they all have their hand out and businesses are not allowed to give away money for nothing. They expect a return on every investment.
So, the MCI price-gouging never went away in privatized prisons. That's no surprise. Take away the privatization of prisons who
are in it just for the very high profits and put it back in the Fed's
hands. Heaven forbid we should do the right thing here.
Or, a simpler solution that was supposed to have been done @20 years ago, stop price gouging those in prison!
are in it just for the very high profits and put it back in the Fed's
hands. Heaven forbid we should do the right thing here.
Or, a simpler solution that was supposed to have been done @20 years ago, stop price gouging those in prison!
20
I am very familar with the prison commerce system that runs a free wheeling merchantile system. As a correctional nurse, I found it shocking how much a magazine or a phone call cost prisoners. However, I disagree with the line about substandard health care in correctional facilities. I was a nurse in a secure facility and we not only provided state of the art care, we also corrected decades of dental and health care neglect. The care for prisoners in the facility I worked in was more comprehensive than I can afford as a civilian. Our prisoners had a 2 dollar co-pay for services which was waived if they did not have any money in their account.
Care at our facility was so good that many inmates would be concerned about leaving as they knew they could not afford the level of care we were providing.
Care at our facility was so good that many inmates would be concerned about leaving as they knew they could not afford the level of care we were providing.
25
Most imprisoned are from poor backgrounds; and this is yet another example of how commercial entities take advantage of the poor and the powerless. Other examples are abound, but one of note is heavy fees for check cashing by the unbanked poor. Worse is overdraft and other fees on those who can bank. These fees are heavily targeting the poor, which cannot afford to keep healthy balances in their bank account, and are subject to either small errors, or shady bank practices, such as "reordering" to charge the most overdraft fees. The poor cannot afford to drive to discount stores, and have to bear the gouging prices of corner stores. etc. etc.
52
I used to work for a bank.
Didn't think anyone outside the industry had figured out the reordering process. Your suspicions are true.
Didn't think anyone outside the industry had figured out the reordering process. Your suspicions are true.
4
"Reordering" checks presented for payment by placing the highest amount check first in line so more of the smaller checks would bounce and create overdraft fees was reported years ago and is supposed to have been stopped per federal orders.
1
The abuses which Ms. Bozelko describes form part of a larger pattern that defines the outsider status of inmates. If the victims of this practice belonged to the political community the companies would confront a powerful backlash from the government.
Incarceration imposes on inmates the legal punishment for their crimes. In practice, however, that punishment entails more than confinement. The loss of the right to vote, a major attribute of citizenship, signals the temporary expulsion of the lawbreaker from the political community. In some states, that limbo status extends beyond the inmate's release, making a mockery of the notion that America scorns the idea of second-class citizenship.
One of the reasons for imprisonment relates to the need to prepare the inmate for a constructive role in society. While the quality and scope of prison educational programs varies widely among the states, "inadequate" would describe most of them. If society regarded the incarcerated as both members of the community and valuable resources, these programs would command much greater resources and would attract far more public attention.
Any meaningful reform in our system of punishment would require a fundamental change in our attitude toward people who break the law. Instead of dismissing them as unworthy of our empathy, we would have to acknowledge our own potential for evil. A nation that treats its inmates as outcasts has refused to acknowledge the ambivalence of human nature.
Incarceration imposes on inmates the legal punishment for their crimes. In practice, however, that punishment entails more than confinement. The loss of the right to vote, a major attribute of citizenship, signals the temporary expulsion of the lawbreaker from the political community. In some states, that limbo status extends beyond the inmate's release, making a mockery of the notion that America scorns the idea of second-class citizenship.
One of the reasons for imprisonment relates to the need to prepare the inmate for a constructive role in society. While the quality and scope of prison educational programs varies widely among the states, "inadequate" would describe most of them. If society regarded the incarcerated as both members of the community and valuable resources, these programs would command much greater resources and would attract far more public attention.
Any meaningful reform in our system of punishment would require a fundamental change in our attitude toward people who break the law. Instead of dismissing them as unworthy of our empathy, we would have to acknowledge our own potential for evil. A nation that treats its inmates as outcasts has refused to acknowledge the ambivalence of human nature.
45
Of course, the members of Congress never heard from any of their constituents that any of this was happening.
Or, at least, the members of Congress will pretend like they never heard of such a complaint.
And, of course, the members of Congress didn't know about localities all across the country using the courts to increase their local municipality budget revenues with excessive court fines (like in Ferguson, Missouri). No, the members of Congress just stick their heads in the sand, unless some rich constituent contacts them about an “important” problem.
Or, at least, the members of Congress will pretend like they never heard of such a complaint.
And, of course, the members of Congress didn't know about localities all across the country using the courts to increase their local municipality budget revenues with excessive court fines (like in Ferguson, Missouri). No, the members of Congress just stick their heads in the sand, unless some rich constituent contacts them about an “important” problem.
3
It's a classic example of rent-taking -- get control of a market and you can gouge the client without fear of a competitor. There is a huge industry that exploits the poor -- like the check-cashing crooks. This is a useful piece, and one that is also well-written. With the Marshall project on prison problems now being run by Bill Keller, more light is being shed on this dark world.
3
The root of this evil is the privatizing of prisons and prison services. When the profit system is involved it is like trying to cut off the heads of a hydra, cut off one and two spring up. We will never permanently win this battle so long as prisons are used as profit centers.
What is happening with the prisons is also what profiteers are trying to do with education. In the beginning they make it sound like it is about quality, but in the end it is about making $ off students, their parents and teachers, and also educating students to think that the profit system is OK not the disease it really is.
What is happening with the prisons is also what profiteers are trying to do with education. In the beginning they make it sound like it is about quality, but in the end it is about making $ off students, their parents and teachers, and also educating students to think that the profit system is OK not the disease it really is.
1
The entire system of for-profit prisons violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution against "cruel and unusual punishment. Inmates are shipped off far from home so that visits from family members are often impossible, so telephone calls and emails are the only options for maintaining contact with what should be their support network in the outside world when they're released. Simultaneously many conservatives oppose education and training programs for inmates as a waste of tax dollars. If they aren't spending months or years in solitary confinement inmates only option for human contact is prison culture.
Such reckless policies assume the purpose of confinement is simply punishment without any possibility of rehabilitation. It would be difficult to devise a more efficient approach for creating hardened criminals and recidivists.
Such reckless policies assume the purpose of confinement is simply punishment without any possibility of rehabilitation. It would be difficult to devise a more efficient approach for creating hardened criminals and recidivists.
1
Gouging has become an acceptable and legislatively protected business model in this country. Try buying a prescription medicine, sending your child to college or receiving any medical services at a hospital. Most of the services and institutions Americans need on a daily basis or in a crisis charge us a maximum rate. The legislative branch will not restrain the Shkrelis, the Verizons, the big banks, the big insurance companies or the telecommunications sector because the laws are written to protect them, not the average citizen. Dealing with predatory and opaque pricing of our phone lines, internet costs, medical treatment, credit cards, is an exhausting part of modern American life. The frustration is palpable, but relief will not be coming.
10
I worked with a group including the cooperative Commissioner of prisons on improving the environment for children visiting incarcerated parents. This is not a recognized problem for many outside of contact with incarcerated parents, but it is a major national effort on this one issue in prison reforms. My interest was avoiding the current negative environment from fostering the next generation of prisoners. One of our efforts was to create opportunities for contact through off-site technology to would avoid lengthy trips to the prison and exposure to the waiting room environment. This was to include methods that relied on phone connections. One of my many disappointments in this mission of improving the environment was learning of the fees referred to in this editorial-- even to the point of comparing the costs of this off-site contact to the costs of travel to the prison -- a calculation that is in itself an indictment of the current system. This issue needs to be considered in the broader context of the importance of contact between prisoners and their families, including children who are especially vulnerable to having an incarcerated parent. With the many projects aimed at reducing crime, and decreasing the prison population, please consider the numbers who will be the next generation in the "high crime" group, whose treatment of incarcerated parents is a countervailing environment for the reform of our criminal justice system.
4
Prisoners are in prison because someone on the streets have been assaulted, robbed, raped, murdered, etc.
I know most readers here are liberals and love to bash corporations and feel social justice towards criminals but of all the injustice in the world(and there are MANY), prisoners being charged too much for phone privileges just isn't my top priority.
I know most readers here are liberals and love to bash corporations and feel social justice towards criminals but of all the injustice in the world(and there are MANY), prisoners being charged too much for phone privileges just isn't my top priority.
3
Also, a portion of the alleged gouging is going back into the DOC budget as revenue. Are all the readers protesting the practice in favor of the higher taxes eliminating this revenue source would cause?
Some functions of society should not be private commercial ventures. Criminal justice is one of them. There is no humane human empathetic moral just fair private prison business. Only the immoral love of money as the root of all evil.
There should only be public prisons whose primary functions should be punishment and protection from the violent, the incorrigible, the organized and those who inflict the most harm along with rehabilitation and return to society of the others. Prisons are not the proper home of the mentally ill nor those who suffer from the public health problem of drug addiction. Prisons are not the morally just fair home of the poor black and brown people who engage in property or other economic crimes by non-violent means.
The shameful fact that the 2.3 million Americans in prison are the historical record number one 25% of the world's prisoners with a mere 5% of the planets people is the legacy of white supremacist malice aforethought. Although they are only 13.2% of Americans blacks make up 40% of the mass incarcerated Americans for doing the same things while black that whites get a pass. Blacks are persecuted.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime for which the person has been duly convicted in a criminal trial. That slavery still lives in America is exemplified by the privatization of prisons as the new plantations. See "Whitney Plantation Louisiana at www. whitneyplantation.com
There should only be public prisons whose primary functions should be punishment and protection from the violent, the incorrigible, the organized and those who inflict the most harm along with rehabilitation and return to society of the others. Prisons are not the proper home of the mentally ill nor those who suffer from the public health problem of drug addiction. Prisons are not the morally just fair home of the poor black and brown people who engage in property or other economic crimes by non-violent means.
The shameful fact that the 2.3 million Americans in prison are the historical record number one 25% of the world's prisoners with a mere 5% of the planets people is the legacy of white supremacist malice aforethought. Although they are only 13.2% of Americans blacks make up 40% of the mass incarcerated Americans for doing the same things while black that whites get a pass. Blacks are persecuted.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime for which the person has been duly convicted in a criminal trial. That slavery still lives in America is exemplified by the privatization of prisons as the new plantations. See "Whitney Plantation Louisiana at www. whitneyplantation.com
1
"Prisons are not the morally just fair home of the poor black and brown people who engage in property or other economic crimes by non-violent means."
Are you saying that only the poor Whites who commit these crimes should be punished?
Are you saying that only the poor Whites who commit these crimes should be punished?
@NYHUGUENOT
In America poor whites who commit those types of crimes are not going to prison now nor are they likely to ever go to prison. Nor are whites who use or possess illegal drugs going to prison for those crimes.
Unarmed black boys like Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice are gunned down by white men. While armed white men like the Mormon terrorists Cliven Bundy and his sons are alive and well. Or the armed white Christian terrorists Dylann Roof.
In America poor whites who commit those types of crimes are not going to prison now nor are they likely to ever go to prison. Nor are whites who use or possess illegal drugs going to prison for those crimes.
Unarmed black boys like Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice are gunned down by white men. While armed white men like the Mormon terrorists Cliven Bundy and his sons are alive and well. Or the armed white Christian terrorists Dylann Roof.
1
"The way that phone companies gouge inmates is criminal."
-- I agree..
US is losing its way, US is going down.
Land of freedom? Land of democracy? Land of progress? Land of equality?
-- I agree..
US is losing its way, US is going down.
Land of freedom? Land of democracy? Land of progress? Land of equality?
2
Well, at least these prisoners get to learn how the real professionals do their stealing.
13
These practices are all legal and moral and good according to the corporate fascists that control our economy.
They're doing God's work!
They're doing God's work!
1
If you want to punish prisoners, do it straight up, not through this Mickey Mouse price gouging that's ripe for corruption.
4
Thanks for shining some light on this, but it has been going on since the 70's, that I know of. Once, every so often, someone writes a column about it and then the subject fades back into obscurity.
If you would like to enlighten yourself about the kind of people who are orchestrating additional unseen punishment on the most vulnerable people in our society you need look no further than our radical right. Check out ALEC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council
If you would like to enlighten yourself about the kind of people who are orchestrating additional unseen punishment on the most vulnerable people in our society you need look no further than our radical right. Check out ALEC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council
2
Why stop at providing convicted criminals with capped phone rates? Some court is going to rule that it's "cruel and unusual punishment" to deprive these guys of having their cells equipped with free cellphones not to mention cable TV with premium channels. Once we get prisoners hooked on devices, they'll give up trying to escape or causing other trouble. Instead, they'll be tweeting day and night and won't want to leave.
3
You are missing the point. In order to speak to their families, the families have to buy a phone account that have fees just to add money to to that account. It's not a cellphone or a 'device'. With attitudes like yours and no advocates, the families have been ripped off with rapidly rising rates to the point where many can't afford to speak to their people on the inside. Without that outside contact, what incentive do they have to get straight and get out?
6
You OK with the higher taxes that are created by the gouging of prisoners? Because if they re-offend, you're on the hook. Maybe, just maybe, it's better to give them something to look forward to so they don't come back.
1
I have sympathy for the inmates and their families but this problem is only a symptom of a society wide issue. It was a large part of how many made money before the US economy was regulated to be useful to the common man without penalizing him for being ignorant of the machinations of the wealthy. Exploitation of the powerless is as old as mankind and it is never ok or acceptable just because it is common.
By 1980 gouging the common person who is largely ignorant of the sorts of manipulations and abuses of their trust, Trust intrinsic to our system, was illegal and any new methodology was usually seen as already covered by the intent if not the specific language of the law.
Since 1980 that has been reversed and it is as prevalent today as it ever was and worse since the common person has no power in their relationship with the corporations they have to rely on for critical to life services, Cable, Phone, banking, insert any company you pay but cannot get on the phone to respond properly to your concerns.
By 1980 gouging the common person who is largely ignorant of the sorts of manipulations and abuses of their trust, Trust intrinsic to our system, was illegal and any new methodology was usually seen as already covered by the intent if not the specific language of the law.
Since 1980 that has been reversed and it is as prevalent today as it ever was and worse since the common person has no power in their relationship with the corporations they have to rely on for critical to life services, Cable, Phone, banking, insert any company you pay but cannot get on the phone to respond properly to your concerns.
5
Anyone at the top, in this case the phone companies and the prisons, should be merciful and just. People are sentenced to prisons as punishment, not for additional punishment. Their families certainly should not have life made any harder. Compassion and mercy are in short supply lately in this world.
5
Why not just allow a 30 minute call once per week for free for each prisoner? LAN lines are not expensive anymore. If they want to hang out on the phone calling people, that shouldn't be allowed. Not the point of prison.
Also, all prisons across the country should block out cell phone coverage. I don't care if it's inconvenient for the guards, there are other ways to communicate with guards within the prison and guards don't need to be using working time to play videos or call people on their cells. No one should be able to use a cell phone in prison and the guards that bring them in and extort prisoners by selling contraband result in fraud across the country. Worse, the prisoners run their crime operations from prison using cell phones.
Prisoners and their family should not be forced to pay excessive fees, nor should they be able to make numerous phone calls on either a LAN line or cell. No cell phones!
Also, all prisons across the country should block out cell phone coverage. I don't care if it's inconvenient for the guards, there are other ways to communicate with guards within the prison and guards don't need to be using working time to play videos or call people on their cells. No one should be able to use a cell phone in prison and the guards that bring them in and extort prisoners by selling contraband result in fraud across the country. Worse, the prisoners run their crime operations from prison using cell phones.
Prisoners and their family should not be forced to pay excessive fees, nor should they be able to make numerous phone calls on either a LAN line or cell. No cell phones!
13
Unfortunately, limiting ANYTHING in a prison will make it a new center of profit for somebody.
Why is this thievery still going on?
This is a disgrace for all Americans.
This is a disgrace for all Americans.
2
I'm familiar with this issue because of a nephew in prison right now.
My sister spends a fortune when he calls because there is no choice of long distance carrier. She cannot call him even if the time was prearranged. She would have no additional charge for the calls because long distance is included with her cable TV/internet/telephone service.
Instead, he must call her collect which carries a very high service fee, a fee much higher than one of the other carriers which wouldn't care where he is calling from. The prisons have made these sweet heart deals to generate revenue and are part of what from I see as a rip off of people who have little to begin with.
There is no reason why these prisoners can't have an account which others could fill with calling minutes enabling them to make station to station calls which are much much cheaper than collect calls.
It's long past time to get the prisons out of the telephone business.
My sister spends a fortune when he calls because there is no choice of long distance carrier. She cannot call him even if the time was prearranged. She would have no additional charge for the calls because long distance is included with her cable TV/internet/telephone service.
Instead, he must call her collect which carries a very high service fee, a fee much higher than one of the other carriers which wouldn't care where he is calling from. The prisons have made these sweet heart deals to generate revenue and are part of what from I see as a rip off of people who have little to begin with.
There is no reason why these prisoners can't have an account which others could fill with calling minutes enabling them to make station to station calls which are much much cheaper than collect calls.
It's long past time to get the prisons out of the telephone business.
77
Failure to provide a decent diet and adequate clothing and heating in winter forces inmates to purchase supplementals from commissary. Again at rip off prices with fees.
You don't have to be incarcerated to see the corruption in this system; just be a spectator at your local district courthouse to watch the 'ka-ching' form of justice meted out.
The predators are not on the street; they are in robes and uniforms.
You don't have to be incarcerated to see the corruption in this system; just be a spectator at your local district courthouse to watch the 'ka-ching' form of justice meted out.
The predators are not on the street; they are in robes and uniforms.
49
This is entirely in the control of prison officials. The terms of phone service are whatever they allow. There is no competition, so those terms will be as harsh as the phone companies are allowed to make them.
There are enough people who delight in making life miserable for prisoners, their idea of justice.
There is also more than a little corruption. Absolute power leads to corruption, we've known that for centuries, and prisons are places of absolute power.
No politician ever sought a vote by being nice to prisoners. Plenty seek votes by being visibly obnoxious.
That all this hurts children, spouses, parents, siblings, makes no impact on any of these decision makers.
They just blame it on the prisoners, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Yet some prisons are almost entirely pre-trial detainees, never convicted of anything, just unable to make bail.
There is an astonishing level of malice. The phone companies merely ride that to profit, like so many others. Food vendors do the same, charging high prices of stale unsalable food. Everything inside prisons is like that, not just the phones.
There are enough people who delight in making life miserable for prisoners, their idea of justice.
There is also more than a little corruption. Absolute power leads to corruption, we've known that for centuries, and prisons are places of absolute power.
No politician ever sought a vote by being nice to prisoners. Plenty seek votes by being visibly obnoxious.
That all this hurts children, spouses, parents, siblings, makes no impact on any of these decision makers.
They just blame it on the prisoners, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Yet some prisons are almost entirely pre-trial detainees, never convicted of anything, just unable to make bail.
There is an astonishing level of malice. The phone companies merely ride that to profit, like so many others. Food vendors do the same, charging high prices of stale unsalable food. Everything inside prisons is like that, not just the phones.
153
Well said, "malice" being the key term.
1
As usual, the criminals are on the wrong side of the fence.
22
Chandra, as a attorney who has been involved in volunteer religious activity in Pennsylvania prisons over a long period of time, I wholeheartedly agree. The Pennsylvania prison system has co-pays for inmates to make visits to receive minimally-acceptable health care services from private providers contracting with the Commonwealth. For inmates to conduct ordinary appeals, they have various copying charges which are difficult for them to bear. Inmate pay may be as low as 17 cents an hour, for make-work jobs. Getting decent food (like fruits) requires buying it from the commissary. Jobs within prison system are highly sought after, because relatively small amounts of money (to us) are so important, but as routinely happens at any level of society, the politically favored (whoever they may be at a particular institution) get the jobs that pay the best.
87
Not only is the system taking advantage of the inmate. The families are cruelly used. When I was the connection to the world for my friend in jAil awaiting transfer to prison, I would have to go to the jail, wait outside in all kinds of weather, for hours. Once inside after my visit, I had to go to another waiting room and again wait, maybe for a hour or more to place the money he needed into his account.
Now, I am a college educated white mail with my own car. The majority of people I waited in line with were women, often with young children. They had to come by train and bus to get there. Frequently, when theft finally got inside to put money in there family member's account, they could not because the corrections employees who tended the donation window would close it for up to several hours at lunchtime.
Let me also mention that any money remaining in the account could only be retrieved by the inmate, in person, after they get out of prison.
Disputable...
Now, I am a college educated white mail with my own car. The majority of people I waited in line with were women, often with young children. They had to come by train and bus to get there. Frequently, when theft finally got inside to put money in there family member's account, they could not because the corrections employees who tended the donation window would close it for up to several hours at lunchtime.
Let me also mention that any money remaining in the account could only be retrieved by the inmate, in person, after they get out of prison.
Disputable...
70
Too many individuals and corporations make their wealth by exploiting the vulnerable. Yet another example of this despicable pattern.
196
The phone calls are the most important but it's just the tip of the iceberg. The way in which prisoners and their families are exploited daily by the money making operations of these institutions is shameful. There is never an alternative to the prescribed vendor. This makes no sense in this day and age, except of course that it is another way to make money off of those that can afford it least.
67
Politicians and people like FCC commissioners have long enabled and encouraged such usury. I think the prison experience should be negative and distasteful enough that inmates won't want to return. But the outright thievery described in this article - as well as other unconscionable behaviors allowed by guards and officials within prison walls - should never be permitted to define prison life, for prisoners or for their families. Collectively, how can we look at ourselves without shame as a nation if we allow the powerful to rob the powerless while also aiding and abetting their potential eventual return to falling victim to these unjust practices?
82
It doesn't take much to make the prison experience distasteful. Think of being in a hospital or assisted living, with bland food, rude people and arbitrary rules. Or just being snowbound in your own home for a week..or two or three. Simply not being able to go to a coffee shop, a museum, a concert or a walk in the park is pretty grim.
A question everyone needs to ask themselves: Are people in prison for punishment or as punishment. What you do will flow from your perspectives on this question.
Making incarceration distasteful, means that the person incarcerated will only know mean-spiritedness. When they leave, that will be their mind set. The lesson from the incarceration you describe is to be mean-spirited, not generous and forgiving. Vindictiveness is the most counterproductive response possible when someone breaks the rules. It corrupts everyone in the system, the guards as well as the prisoners.
I wonder if this is an educational opportunity for inmates? They are being taught how to steal money legally.
51
Crooks running prisons. Just like wall-street, corporate America, and all aspects of our illegal governance. Crooks strewn throughout protecting each others incompetence, ignorance and wallets all at the expense of real people the not nepotistic morons who we have allowed to hijack this country. Arrogant ignorance is no way to help anyone other than oneself. These days the entire country is a prison of one form or another. If we lock up all the real crooks responsible for the demise of American society we would need only one prison and we could probably use the pentagon, the capital or the supreme court buildings.
24
Any time, anywhere (at least in the US) you have something that some people need and there are literally no other choices, those people are most likely going to be paying considerably more than whatever they need is actually worth. That's why most prescription medications for serious illnesses often cause bankruptcy (remember Martin Shkrelli, who hiked prices of decades-old medications 5000 percent??). It's also why phone calls made or received by prisoners are so outrageously priced.
It's the difference between making a living and making a killing. When someone is trying to make a killing, that person doesn't care what his or her customers think or even if they die because they couldn't get what they needed.
It's the difference between making a living and making a killing. When someone is trying to make a killing, that person doesn't care what his or her customers think or even if they die because they couldn't get what they needed.
32
It costs a lot of money to house prisoners, even more for the most dangerous among them. They pay nothing. I think we should tax their phone calls big time to recover a little bit of the costs we pay for murderers, rapists, and robbers. And then they should pay an extra tax to go the families of their victims.
3
That would be a fine principle if the money were pocketed by the government, and reallocated to the prison system, to transfer costs from taxpayers to inmates.
But it's not. The money goes to parasite companies who pay nothing to the state above their regular corporate taxes.
But it's not. The money goes to parasite companies who pay nothing to the state above their regular corporate taxes.
3
Well, most people in county jails are there for domestic disputes, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor offenses. They are also trapped in this system as I can attest to by the fact my housekeeper was arrested for disorderly conduct (charges since dismissed) for two days until he called me to bail him out. The call he made was collect and the fee they are trying to collect for a literal 3 minute call is $27. Multiply that by people who don't have the bail. Furthermore, if you want prisons than society should pay for it. I am so tired of self-righteous people and their I don't want to pay for anything that does not benefit me or my family directly with money in my pocket attitude.
4
Justice should be tempered with nercy - and a sense of reality. Many prisoners are already victims, treated badly and/or abandoned by caretakers (during childhood) and struggling for survival in adulthood.
Often this results in a human who grabs whatever she/he can get without regard for others. Often the former victim's anger becomes revenge, leading to horrendous crimes.
Society, represented by the courts, must punish all found guilty. But they should not be further victimized by dishobnest and cruel prison authorities and the money grubbing corporations that are now running our prison systems.
Outsourcing prisons, medical care, education, and other societal needs must be stopped. Many prisoners have been inhumane. How can they learn to be truly human when they are robbed of humanity and have few opportunities to learn how to change? Some who work with prisoners treat them well. We need to hire more of them. I'm not optimistic. Mary Lynch Mobilia
Often this results in a human who grabs whatever she/he can get without regard for others. Often the former victim's anger becomes revenge, leading to horrendous crimes.
Society, represented by the courts, must punish all found guilty. But they should not be further victimized by dishobnest and cruel prison authorities and the money grubbing corporations that are now running our prison systems.
Outsourcing prisons, medical care, education, and other societal needs must be stopped. Many prisoners have been inhumane. How can they learn to be truly human when they are robbed of humanity and have few opportunities to learn how to change? Some who work with prisoners treat them well. We need to hire more of them. I'm not optimistic. Mary Lynch Mobilia
4
I get charged fees that total 50 percent of my phone bill too. So while I sympathize with these inmates, I also have to say "Welcome to the club".
10
Perhaps, Ken...you should re-work your math. If the fees charged to prisoners were only a mere 50%....
Thank you for bringing this issue to light - it is a shame that corporate America is gouging prisoners . Without human contact, even by a phone , it is harder for inmates to keep up with the changing world . A world they have to fit in when they leave the prison system .
37
Businesses should not be allowed to earn extra profits on prisoners.
53
Agree!
But, too many businessmen see every social & political situation as an opportunity for profit if only the can work the right angle.
On 9/11, it was shocking to see Tower 2 slowly collapse into rubble. I know that thousands of people saw that on tv and during those seconds thought, "How can I make money off of this?"
But, too many businessmen see every social & political situation as an opportunity for profit if only the can work the right angle.
On 9/11, it was shocking to see Tower 2 slowly collapse into rubble. I know that thousands of people saw that on tv and during those seconds thought, "How can I make money off of this?"
Who owns Securus? They should be named and shamed.
87
The problem with shaming such people is that, unlike most of us, they have no shame.
3
By the common people? Sure, but who cares. They're likely heroes in the business world.
1
A corporation: Secures. It's now named and shamed...unless it's shameless, like most corporations.
The ugly fact now of American life is that anything that is not a profit center is automatically deemed un-American. Whether it's prisons, health care, education. So easy to rationalize. That is the mental hurdle to deal with before we can stop cruelty and exploitation and restore some measure of justice and decency.
76
Consider how depraved this situation is:
An inmate can be serving a sentence for extortion, while he and his family are being extorted by these corrupt companies under legal protection.
An inmate can be serving a sentence for extortion, while he and his family are being extorted by these corrupt companies under legal protection.
110
I'm glad this essay was written, and i hope that the NY Times stays on top of this story. Prisoners don't receive a lot of public sympathy and these commercial entities take advantage of that. But, as the author states, stronger connections with home can reduce recidivism of those released from prison. Let's stop gouging the families of people who are in jail -- the families didn't do anything.
116
Yes, it's nice when the Times uses its journalistic power for something solid, not the fluffy topics we've been seeing in the Magazine lately.
4
I have a better idea. The gouging described herein appears self-evident, but what other forms of gouging do we permit of inmates, in federal as well as state institutions? The Justice Dept. should commission a study to determine just that, and report to Congress in a few months for action. If we have 2.2 million people incarcerated in the U.S., which certainly must involve ten million people total, when one considers dependents on the outside. Surely, that’s sufficient grass-roots support if properly mobilized to demand and receive some kind of remedial action.
41
I am reminded of Paul Krugman's admonition of several years back, "A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will always have bad government." (New York Times, 10/28/13)
www.endthemadnessnow.org