Jails banned visits in “quid pro quo” with prison phone companies, lawsuits say
arstechnica.com
Civil rights group sues two counties, says hundreds more have banned visits.

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.

  • vortic@lemmy.world
    103·
    8 months ago

    Prisoners shouldn’t need to pay to talk with their families. We claim that our system is intended for rehabilitation. What could possibly lead to better outcomes than the ability to keep in touch with your family; to be made to feel human while serving your sentence? The US justice system is a fucking joke and for-profit prison shareholders are the only ones laughing.

    Incarceration should have no profit motive, regardless of whether that profit motive benefits a for-profit company and its shareholders or the local Sheriff’s department.

    • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
      552·
      8 months ago

      We claim that our system is intended for rehabilitation.

      News to me, I did not know you guys claimed that.

  • DessertStorms@kbin.social
    923·
    8 months ago

    The answer highlights a profound flaw in how decisions too often get made in our legal system

    The fact that the author, despite them providing all of this evidence to the contrary, still thinks (or is at least reporting) that this is a bug, not a feature, is absolutely enraging.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
      121·
      8 months ago

      So you’re anti-reform? What? Are we going back to stoning people to death in your Utopia? I’m missing something about this conversation.

      EDIT: Don’t just downvote, explain it to me. If the entire justice system is harmful then what is your alternative?

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        20·
        8 months ago

        They’re saying the people in charge don’t see this as a bug, but as a feature. Just like saving money by removing rehabilitation programs and getting more money when the recidivism rate goes up.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
          310·
          8 months ago

          Idk about that take, the phone companies and wardens aren’t really “the people in charge” so much as they saw where laws didn’t exist and moved to profit off of it.

          The comment pretty clearly and aggressively says that we should all assume the justice system is inherently corrupt. I think that’s pretty shortsighted and doesn’t leave any means of improvement. We should treat these bugs as flaws, and we should deal with each one individually with political action. Notably, simply removing the private prisons ability to lobby would probably do the trick, as well as supporting lawmakers who want to ban them including Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden (in fact Biden has already banned federal private prisons, but much with any other executive order it’s been challenged in courts).

          Also, again, if it cannot be fixed then what is the alternative to the justice system?

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            13·
            8 months ago

            Most of the prison industrial complex is actually service and goods suppliers. Then there’s the companies using prison labor. And then at the end a few percentage points account for private prisons.

            And the system is inherently corrupt. Every time we successfully assert a right they find a way to negate it.

            Police need probable cause? Nope. As long as they believe they’re acting in good faith the evidence is admissible.

            When you get to court you get a lawyer? Well maybe. Is your crime eligible for more than one year in prison? No? Haha no lawyer for you.

            Okay but at least there’s bail so you can set up your life to not fall apart if you’re convicted and spend a few months behind bars? Nope. You can’t afford bail. Nevermind that means you can’t afford to be flight risk, you get to stay in jail until you confess, or your trial ends.

            Okay okay, but surely they can’t keep you in jail for longer than the sentence you would get? They can and they have.

            The prosecutor changed your charges because you wouldn’t take a plea deal, but at least now you get a lawyer! Your public defender is too busy to come visit you. They can only talk over the phone and they warn you the call is recorded and everything you say can be used against you in court. Their only advice is to bargain with the prosecutor. They explain they couldn’t even begin to make an effective defense because whatever you tell them will get selectively played in court.

            You take the deal, it seems like the only way out of the nightmare. You get home on time served and you find a bill waiting for you. The state is charging you for room, board, court room, and the lawyer. If you don’t pay you’ll be held in contempt and returned to jail. You lost your job while you were in jail and you have a letter threatening eviction from your land lord.

            This has all happened to people. And when Chicago still couldn’t get enough, they operated an honest to God black site at Homan Square.

            • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
              19·
              8 months ago

              First of all, even if you think 8% of inmates in private prisons is only “a few percentage points”, about 3/4ths of all migrant detention in the USA is private prison industry, private prisons cost more per prisoner housing and also result in more violent outbreaks and assaults which lead to additional costs, and they’re also the major groups lobbying for control of prison supply chains, prisoner labour, harsher sentencing, etc. They are not a negligible part of the overall problem.

              Second, what is your alternative to a prison system? Is it fixing the flaws, public stoning, what? You say that the vague concept of a Justice System is inherently corrupt, I’ve been asking in every single comment what the alternative is?

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
                9·
                8 months ago

                Comprehensive reform. Without writing a book that’s really all there is to it. Accountability for abuses, strict oversight, public education about how you actually lower recidivism, run goods and services like the military (through a single purchasing authority), and on and on.

                The most important thing is to unpack the supreme court. They’ve approved most of the stuff on that list.

                • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
                  22·
                  8 months ago

                  If it can be reformed with legislative actions then it’s not inherently corrupt. Maybe it’s just a use of language that’s causing the disconnect for me here. Shaka when the Walls Fell.

                  It’s still going to be the Justice System after comprehensive reform.

  • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
    323·
    8 months ago

    Wow, so when they enjoyed unlimited power, they… Abused it!?

    People now a days are really off the rails man. Back in the day, absolute power didn’t corrupt. It only tickled. Slightly.

    /s

    • shneancy@lemmy.world
      4·
      8 months ago

      back in the day? you mean the stone ages?

      there is not a day in written history where we can’t read about a person corrupted by power

      • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
        5·
        8 months ago

        Very true, shneancy. It was a sarcastic reaction, it seemed so obvious te me but the internet is ofc very versatile and casts a wide net.

        • Mango@lemmy.world
          115·
          8 months ago

          Would you feel inclined to do some blatantly corrupt shit in a world full of armed people who have the hated for unfairness that chimpanzees do? Naw, you do that in a country where the extra income is a huge shield between you and the people who would otherwise kill you for such top shelf abuse.

          • Landmammals@lemmy.world
            191·
            8 months ago

            You’re describing an alternate reality where heavily armed people are able to recognize corruption and rally against it. The most hate-filled, firearm fanatics I know of have Trump 2024 signs in their yard. And they’re waiting with bated breath for an excuse to murder any person who says they should have the right to health Care.

            The people with the most guns are the ones with the least brains.

            • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
              25·
              8 months ago

              It only takes a few capable well armed people to kick this shit in the dick. Christopher dorner wasnt enough, but john brown and his boss managed to start some shit.

              And it’s 2024; guns are not the only source of violence. Hell, you can go full dick and kill a fucker with his smart house.

  • IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee
    27·
    8 months ago

    I read about this in Cory Doctorow’s The Bezzle. I’m surprised it didn’t get more traction in the press.

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
      61·
      8 months ago

      You are? Challenging the status quo isn’t really the press’ thing anymore—or, like, ever.

    • StineD@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      4·
      8 months ago

      I’m reading it right now, and I honestly thought it was something he made up as a near-future dystopian plot point. Didn’t realize that it was real…

  • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
    292·
    8 months ago

    Lol America as usual.

    What a joke of a country - so many horrible decisions in one place.

    • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
      5·
      8 months ago

      Yeah, just wait until our entire system inevitably folds in on itself and destroys the economies of the world in the process. Hopefully I outlast american entropy.

    • PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world
      12·
      8 months ago

      I’m very curious about the first part of your statement. Do you believe in an eye for an eye, literally chopping off fingers for thieves, immediate forgiveness for repentance, or just execution?

      • stratoscaster@lemmy.world
        71·
        8 months ago

        People are in prisons for insanely stupid reasons, why shouldn’t the people abusing them for their own gain not deserve punishment?

        Even theft is a whole different ballgame than actual indentured servitude and abuse of power.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
          4·
          8 months ago

          Who cares about theft?

          Wage theft in the US totals approximately 50 billion dollars per year. That’s more than all burglaries, robberies, and car thefts, combined.

          That’s one white-collar crime. How many people behind bars stand convicted of it?

      • Panda (he/him)@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        9·
        8 months ago

        After Trevor Noah left The Daily Show and Colbert started pandering to liberal middle-aged white women after his move to CBS, I feel like Oliver is the only bearable talk show host on network television these days.

        Honorable mention to Kimmel, though. He’s not a revolutionary, but he’s pretty funny.

        • solarbabies@lemmy.world
          4·
          8 months ago

          Trevor Noah? you mean Jon Stewart?

          Noah was smart but I never had fun watching him. He was too serious, and his delivery of the punchy low-blow jokes the writers gave him were never satisfying in the way Stewart somehow fills me with rage and makes me chuckle at the absurdity of it.

          don’t even get me started on Jimmy Kimmel… the guy is a very talented actor with no brains, no real opinions and thinks absolutely everything is hilarious. I’d rather watch water boil than listen to his childish version of comedy. his writers do all the work, he’s a parrot with just enough brains to land the jokes and not enough to question the interests of his corporate media overlords.

  • Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world
    141·
    8 months ago

    Jpay.com is what I used when I went to jail.

    A literal captive consumer. Capitalists wet dream come true. Just think of the returns if this model could be expanded! Disrupting the economy by disrupting your freedom.

    They’re not trying to build a prison for you and me, they already have.