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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

#81

Post by chillwaves »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #80

I want to be outraged by JPAY but I can't be. 47 cents per email seems like a lot but it's not. Consider a typical home situation, Spectrum charges $50 a month just to get internet service that does not include the hardware, maintenance, taxes and who knows what else. Divide service cost by .47 cents and that works out to something like 100 emails. I know for a fact that I don't send that many emails a month. So, in…

.47 is not reasonable by any measure.

You can't compare being in prison with signing up with an ISP.

Prisoners also have basically no income. They are often charged per day on their accounts as well and are charged high mark up for basic commissary items and outrageous mark up for phone calls (even more than email).

This is exploitation, plain and simple.

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

#82

Post by mnm1 »

Of course, if you can profit nicely off of people's misery and suffering, it'd almost be un-American not to. These perverse incentives go a long way to explaining what a shitty society we live in. Over two and a half million people locked up isn't good enough. Let's charge them for email. Let's root for them to get raped or murdered inside. They must deserve it even if over ninety percent didn't even have a chance at a trial when they were threatened with a plea deal or an absurd amount of time in jail. There is so much hate and cruelty here, it's beyond sickening.

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

#84

Post by blub »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #80

I want to be outraged by JPAY but I can't be. 47 cents per email seems like a lot but it's not. Consider a typical home situation, Spectrum charges $50 a month just to get internet service that does not include the hardware, maintenance, taxes and who knows what else. Divide service cost by .47 cents and that works out to something like 100 emails. I know for a fact that I don't send that many emails a month. So, in…

Actually the cost should be zero.

The prison has an internet connection anyway, one would just need a router with VPN support (to separate traffic) and 10 locked down wired terminals.

Charging per email is complete bollocks.

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

#85

Post by candiodari »

news_to_me wrote: post #61
candiodari wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 gove…

> It only matters that some people get power over others I agree with this part. I disagree, however, with your implicit suggestion that fewer laws will help. The purpose of the government is to protect people, and it's obviously failing at that in the current prison system. But simply punting the problem to the "free market" won't help either - corporations are arguably even worse offenders of exploiting unfair powe…

The problem is that the government is little better than thieves. I don't mean that in the abstract. Look at this video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

The video has 2 sections. First, the professor explains the reasoning behind the 5th amendment ... and then a police officer points out how he does it.

Despite that I would agree that this officer is a pretty correct cop. Certainly you cannot call this guy bad or corrupt, and equally certain: he is a pretty smart guy.

He states pretty bluntly what the goal of a police officer is, in criminal cases. You probably think the goal is to arrest the perpetrator, but listen to the guy, it's not. The goal is a confession, the goal is maximizing convictions. Seriously, that's the metric they're judged on: number of convictions. Regardless of any other factor, and frankly using highly illegal tactics (though compared to European police I must say he is a saint). On top of that he has self-control that rivals the best monks.

The average cop, I am sorry to say, is not like this guy. The average cop is much more like Kelso from "that 70s show". The average cop became a cop because he could not get another job, but got accepted in the entrance exam, or (worse) because they enjoy having power over others. Or, like Kelso, a combination of both. They're morons, dumb to the point that people who know them wouldn't leave them alone with a lighter. They're interested in proving their power over others directly by humiliating them (generally in pretty benign ways, but ... like a high school bully that isn't an 8 year old anymore). They regularly screw up badly, and they desperately want to hide those screwups, at almost any cost.

This isn't controversial: everybody who knows a few cops knows this.

Can you imagine what interrogations tactics are when the cop is NOT a 20 year old military veteran with a strong sense of honor and very good observational skills, without good self control ? Oh wait, no need to imagine, just search it on youtube. Warning: actually doing that will not be pretty. Moron police officers shooting people for completely absurd misunderstandings, in scenarios that certainly look like a strong racism, sexism, and just general bullying component is at play.

Doing the same lookups for other forces, like for instance, searching youtube for videos of the UN's "blue helmets" in action ... is far worse. European police forces ... outright disgusting.

The problem is not law. You cannot reasonably argue that the problem is that we just need a few more laws and all will be fine.

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

#86

Post by rhizome »

bdcravens wrote: post #76
rhizome wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's tremendous political value in making Joe Public feel safer. On this point, without looking it up, what do you estimate the overall recidivism rate to be? Just in a general conversational sense.

Depends on the crime and incarceration level.

Overall.

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

#87

Post by jjoonathan »

candiodari wrote: post #85
news_to_me wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It only matters that some people get power over others I agree with this part. I disagree, however, with your implicit suggestion that fewer laws will help. The purpose of the government is to protect people, and it's obviously failing at that in the current prison system. But simply punting the problem to the "free market" won't help either - corporations are arguably even worse offenders of exploiting unfair powe…

The problem is that the government is little better than thieves. I don't mean that in the abstract. Look at this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE The video has 2 sections. First, the professor explains the reasoning behind the 5th amendment ... and then a police officer points out how he does it. Despite that I would agree that this officer is a pretty correct cop. Certainly you cannot call this g…

Then it's a good thing that wasn't what he argued, isn't it?

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

#88

Post by pastage »

jjeaff wrote: post #77
akudha wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting rich by charging insane amounts of money from sick people (healthcare) charging insane premiums and still trying every way to not pay when a person does fall sick charging insane amounts of money in fees from students, selling textbooks for hundreds of dollars, putting them in debt for life - all with not even a guarantee of half decent job when they finish their course making sure workers get slightly less h…

You'll notice that every bit of exploitation you mention is enabled by governments. Imagine how cheap sending email as a prisoner would be if governments didn't create artificial monopolies either by crony selection or ridiculous barriers to entry. Hint, it would be about as cheap as it is for everyone else.

Prisons are enabled by the people, you decide what should go on in there if you live in an democracy. AFAIK the prison/jail system in the US is administered on county/state/federal level and there are also private versions. From what I've heard it's pretty bad in all of them.

Here in Sweden we have some pretty crappy habits too regarding jails, so I understand the issue with getting the people to unite for prisoners rights.

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

#89

Post by hansthehorse »

martinald wrote: post #55
aaron-lebo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is easy to observe in judicial elections where said judges get tough prior to elections. But there's more to it than that. The US system doesn't rehabilitate prisoners well, so letting a person who was committing armed robbery (this isn't a small offense, it's terrorizing innocent people) at 17 out at 22 isn't much better than letting them out at 27. The chance of recidivism is high, and so letting them out earl…

I think the real problem in the US is the legal discrimination that goes on to people with criminal records. Records don't automatically get 'spent' like most other countries after a period of time so always need to be declared, which makes it hard to impossible to get a job. You also lose student aid access, landlords can turn you away from housing legally because of it, etc. So even if you 100% want to be a normal…

My daughter has a felony record. When she was looking for a job I told her to lie on her applications. If she declared the conviction she wouldn't get the job, if she lied and they checked she wouldn't get the job. If she lied and got the job she wins. There is nothing to lose by lying on your job application if you have a conviction.
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