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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

#41

Post by Sharlin »

mmirate wrote: post #32
whatshisface wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another question might be, how isn't it? In every other area of society, if someone is very good at arranging things to achieve some widely valued goal, we think it's OK for them to get rich. If someone is the best jailer in the world would it not be reasonable to reward them? Operating a prison is a lot of work. The problem is that they are being rewarded for doing the wrong things, there's no problem with rewarding…

> wrong things Says who? How does anyone make that kind of value judgment?

How does anyone make any kind of value judgment?

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#42

Post by j88439h84 »

thatcat wrote: post #36
whatshisface wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that jails should not exist at all, then, granted, nobody should be paid to run them. If jails should exist then presumably you can make a list of the things you would like to see in them, and whoever can best realize that list could be justly rewarded for doing it on your behalf.

You're doing economic analysis on something that is essentially political. Jailers don't get paid because they are the best, they get paid because they have government contracts - presumably they made the lowest bid for the job. They simply do the minimum to continue the contract and use their gains to lobby for legislation that will lead to more imprisonment or ways to leverage their position as jailer - like creati…

Supposed to be that service providers compete on cost and efficiency and quality, like anything else.

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#43

Post by Sharlin »

Invictus0 wrote: post #40

Is it really so hard to compete with this company? It's only a monopoly because no one else went in and did the work. Whats preventing anyone else from making these kiosks and charging a penny per call/email?

Getting them to prisons? It’s not like the customers (that is, the convicts, not prison officials) have a free choice of the service provider. It’s not a free market and the current situation is perfect for rent-seekers.

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#44

Post by 5555624 »

Invictus0 wrote: post #40

Is it really so hard to compete with this company? It's only a monopoly because no one else went in and did the work. Whats preventing anyone else from making these kiosks and charging a penny per call/email?

As Sharlin says, getting into the prisons. There are other companies, like CorrLinks and AccessCorrections. (I believe CorrLinks has all of the federal prison system, in addition to some states.) These systems can work both ways or one way. For example, federal prisoners can email back and forth via CorrLinks; while some systems, only allow incoming email, which is printed out and provided to the prisoner.

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#45

Post by 1996 »

j88439h84 wrote: post #42
thatcat wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're doing economic analysis on something that is essentially political. Jailers don't get paid because they are the best, they get paid because they have government contracts - presumably they made the lowest bid for the job. They simply do the minimum to continue the contract and use their gains to lobby for legislation that will lead to more imprisonment or ways to leverage their position as jailer - like creati…

Supposed to be that service providers compete on cost and efficiency and quality, like anything else.

The market can not function if the government is taking decisions (or a limited numbers of companies, but they are limited in their capacity to fail by the money they have- unlike government budgets)

The market works when individual people take decisions: because there are many of them, some take risks, and they all talk to eachother.

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#46

Post by bdcravens »

jrhurst wrote: post #24
whatshisface wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another question might be, how isn't it? In every other area of society, if someone is very good at arranging things to achieve some widely valued goal, we think it's OK for them to get rich. If someone is the best jailer in the world would it not be reasonable to reward them? Operating a prison is a lot of work. The problem is that they are being rewarded for doing the wrong things, there's no problem with rewarding…

"If someone is the best jailer in the world would it not be reasonable to reward them?" I mean if we're gonna bring up this anology we've gotta figure out what a "best failer in the world" even means? What is the value the jailer creates? How do define a high performance jailer over just a nominal performant jailer? If there is no extra value produced by the best jailer in the world then we are over paying the best j…

There's value in reducing recidivism and escapes. More practically, jails are understaffed, and there's tremendous political value in making Joe Public feel safer.

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#47

Post by jjoonathan »

whatshisface wrote: post #21
wayanon wrote: post #9

How is it moral for people to get rich from imprisonment?

Another question might be, how isn't it? In every other area of society, if someone is very good at arranging things to achieve some widely valued goal, we think it's OK for them to get rich. If someone is the best jailer in the world would it not be reasonable to reward them? Operating a prison is a lot of work. The problem is that they are being rewarded for doing the wrong things, there's no problem with rewarding…

Moral hazard is thick as molasses in this situation. You are making a distinction without a difference.

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#49

Post by samirillian »

whatshisface wrote: post #21
wayanon wrote: post #9

How is it moral for people to get rich from imprisonment?

Another question might be, how isn't it? In every other area of society, if someone is very good at arranging things to achieve some widely valued goal, we think it's OK for them to get rich. If someone is the best jailer in the world would it not be reasonable to reward them? Operating a prison is a lot of work. The problem is that they are being rewarded for doing the wrong things, there's no problem with rewarding…

> best jailer in the world.

I have a new life goal

Re: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email

#50

Post by candiodari »

jjoonathan wrote: post #47
whatshisface wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another question might be, how isn't it? In every other area of society, if someone is very good at arranging things to achieve some widely valued goal, we think it's OK for them to get rich. If someone is the best jailer in the world would it not be reasonable to reward them? Operating a prison is a lot of work. The problem is that they are being rewarded for doing the wrong things, there's no problem with rewarding…

Moral hazard is thick as molasses in this situation. You are making a distinction without a difference.

Have you ever noticed how the government and the police keep attacking the poor ?

There's no more to it than that. They can attack these people for personal gain. They, in this case, of course is the government. The people that make up the law, the government, the police.

If you think this is bad, wait until you see what child services or mental care departments do to people, which is a much worse example of how governments attacks the weak and hopeless. It doesn't matter which governments. It only matters that some people get power over others.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/...

But no worries, this whole thread is discussing how we can fix this with a few more laws.

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