938
Jails banned in-person visits in order to maximize revenue from voice and video calls as part of a "quid pro quo kickback scheme" with prison phone companies (arstechnica.com)
submitted 7 months ago by tree@lemmy.ml to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
102 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Across the United States, hundreds of jails have eliminated in-person family visits over the last decade. Why has this happened? The answer highlights a profound flaw in how decisions too often get made in our legal system: for-profit jail telecom companies realized that they could earn more profit from phone and video calls if jails eliminated free in-person visits for families. So the companies offered sheriffs and county jails across the country a deal: if you eliminate family visits, we'll give you a cut of the increased profits from the larger number of calls. This led to a wave across the country, as local jails sought to supplement their budgets with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from some of the poorest families in our society.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 months ago

Uhm.

Well, private, for-profit prisons are a thing. Which is uncanny, that apparently a private entity can do "prison" for the state for cheaper than the state it can could.

But once in it's a captive audience. They aren't gonna go to the commissary down the street. The whole thing is a monopoly.

The unsettling truth is that nobody cares about prisoners, or even ex-cons, in America. We ignore everything bad that happens to them, big or small, or toss it out as "well, they deserve it". As if the sole purpose of prison is punishment.

And then they get out and in many places they are no longer full citizens with a right to vote. So, say, for example, you are arrested and imprisoned on possession of cannabis. Well, you can pay your "debt to society" by serving your time in prison, and then when you get out you can't even vote for a decriminalization candidate.

this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
938 points (99.5% liked)

A Boring Dystopia

9747 readers
374 users here now

Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.

Rules (Subject to Change)

--Be a Decent Human Being

--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title

--Posts must have something to do with the topic

--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.

--No NSFW content

--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
givesomefucks@lemmy.world