How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
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Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#2Regulatory capture is terrible.
Another example: Once I needed some court records. Not surprisingly, they're recorded in proprietary format, only playable with a proprietary media player, and all to enormous cost to the taxpayer, all while applicable state law demands these court records be open access to the public.
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#3It still amazes me the human waste of US prison sentences. Armed robbery in the UK for a 17 year old, from memory, is likely to attract significantly less than 10 years of actual time served.
Yet in the UK we are not overrun with armed robbers. I think the deterrent effect of a long sentence is rather lost on a 17 year-old who is already making bad life decisions.
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#4It still amazes me the human waste of US prison sentences. Armed robbery in the UK for a 17 year old, from memory, is likely to attract significantly less than 10 years of actual time served. Yet in the UK we are not overrun with armed robbers. I think the deterrent effect of a long sentence is rather lost on a 17 year-old who is already making bad life decisions.
The idea is not a deterrent. The idea is if someone spends most of their life in prison they are not going to be able to commit crimes outside.
Effective or not, the reasoning is fairly straightforward.
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#5It still amazes me the human waste of US prison sentences. Armed robbery in the UK for a 17 year old, from memory, is likely to attract significantly less than 10 years of actual time served. Yet in the UK we are not overrun with armed robbers. I think the deterrent effect of a long sentence is rather lost on a 17 year-old who is already making bad life decisions.
Well, to be fair, the UK isn't awash in numerous cheap guns either. I agree with the sentiment, but there are plenty of things that more significantly affect the UK/USA's crime rate than deterrence via incarceration.
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#6It still amazes me the human waste of US prison sentences. Armed robbery in the UK for a 17 year old, from memory, is likely to attract significantly less than 10 years of actual time served. Yet in the UK we are not overrun with armed robbers. I think the deterrent effect of a long sentence is rather lost on a 17 year-old who is already making bad life decisions.
The idea is not a deterrent. The idea is if someone spends most of their life in prison they are not going to be able to commit crimes outside. Effective or not, the reasoning is fairly straightforward.
A sentence has always a correcting, an deterring, a protecting and a vengeance component. (Not very educated on law though. That's what I learned in my mandatory philosophy of law class as an undergrad long ago.)
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#7This is an interesting read
While profiting off inmates may seem predatory to some extent, it does offer a service that was not there before the dotcom age.
When we look at prison communication back in the day, it was through locally wired telephone systems. The loved one or family member had to physically be present to speak to the person, but with technology something like an ekiosk (essentially the same types you see at newer airports, olive garden, etc), this does not have to be the case. You can be halfway across the world and still have more than just a phone call with someone who is incarcerated using the internet.
Prison phones are a commodity but now it seems to be legalized in a sense with this type of kiosk gateway for buying news, watching TV shows, etc.
I've done a bit of work with prisons before, the restrictions for equipment inside of it are absurd. Everything is considered a weapon in prison. I can only imagine the amount of censorship involved with this gateway though, its like bigbrother 1984
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#8This is an interesting read While profiting off inmates may seem predatory to some extent, it does offer a service that was not there before the dotcom age. When we look at prison communication back in the day, it was through locally wired telephone systems. The loved one or family member had to physically be present to speak to the person, but with technology something like an ekiosk (essentially the same types you…
> but with technology something like an ekiosk (essentially the same types you see at newer airports, olive garden, etc)
What's an ekiosk? And Olive Garden is a fast food chain isn't it? What do these two things have to do with each other and with prisons? And why do you need ekiosk or fast food chains to solve this? You just need any two tablets and an internet connection.
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#9How is it moral for people to get rich from imprisonment?
Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email
#10It still amazes me the human waste of US prison sentences. Armed robbery in the UK for a 17 year old, from memory, is likely to attract significantly less than 10 years of actual time served. Yet in the UK we are not overrun with armed robbers. I think the deterrent effect of a long sentence is rather lost on a 17 year-old who is already making bad life decisions.
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