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.
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.