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The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

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Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#161

Post by cmsmith »

thatswrong0 wrote: post #113
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole private prison thing makes me want to vomit. Muckrock (shoutout to @morisey) is doing an investigative piece on private prisons. If possible, please think about contributing $10-20 on it. https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2015/sep/18/justice-s...

I'm going to keep reiterating this: private prisons are not the problem. They are a problem, and a relatively small one at that compared to other systemic abuses. > Far more influential are political benefits that elected officials of both political parties harvested over the decades by being tough on crime as well as the billions of dollars earned by government-run prisons’ employees and private contractors and vend…

Earlier this week a few hundred police chiefs around the country came out against overly harsh criminal penalties for nonviolent drug crimes. That leaves the private prison lobby as one of the few organizations campaigning against sensible reform of sentencing laws.

Old-style tough-on-crime rhetoric from voters and politicians isn't working as much anymore, because people realize that it doesn't work and are less worried about crime than they were 20 years ago.

[1] Anecdote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

[2] Data: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/...

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#162

Post by themartorana »

nickff wrote: post #95
linksbro wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how I understand how an independent commission created by congress to "make available so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, rapid, efficient, Nationwide, and world-wide wire and radio communication services with adequate facilities at reasonable charges"[1] is increasing the scope of their authori…

If you read the commission's charter broadly enough, and without regard to either the original understanding or the original intent, you come to all kinds of absurd conclusions. From the text you provided, one could, for instance conclude that the FCC has the authority to issue regulations which require parents to provide all children above the age of two with a cellphone capable of high-speed internet access with no…

"The FCC does not have authority to regulate phones or networks in any business or home,"

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure my wireless phone, the bands it can use, and the power it can transmit are highly regulated...

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#163

Post by gruez »

linksbro wrote: post #20
Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I don't understand why the Republicans voted against. Look, I get it, you support private industry. But let's remember context, you support capitalism where COMPETITION exists, in this situation it is an artificially created monopoly of one company. Now if they had an alternative proposal that required prisons to have two or more vendors, I'd be totally onboard with not setting an artificial price restriction. Since…

They voted against it because they believe it "exceed(s) the commission’s legal authority."[1] But they both said the idea had "well intentions." [2] Makes you wonder what horrors a conservative majority FCC will cause. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/regulators-sl... [2] Full commission meeting (item was first on agenda) https://www.fcc.gov/events/open-commission-meeting-october-2...

>They voted against it because they believe it "exceed(s) the commission’s legal authority."

isn't that the default response for them? they used similar reasoning to go against obamacare.

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#164

Post by GuamPirate »

linksbro wrote: post #20
Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I don't understand why the Republicans voted against. Look, I get it, you support private industry. But let's remember context, you support capitalism where COMPETITION exists, in this situation it is an artificially created monopoly of one company. Now if they had an alternative proposal that required prisons to have two or more vendors, I'd be totally onboard with not setting an artificial price restriction. Since…

They voted against it because they believe it "exceed(s) the commission’s legal authority."[1] But they both said the idea had "well intentions." [2] Makes you wonder what horrors a conservative majority FCC will cause. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/regulators-sl... [2] Full commission meeting (item was first on agenda) https://www.fcc.gov/events/open-commission-meeting-october-2...

The FCC should always be a progressive institution, so a conservative majority would be against this goal by definition of the word "conservative".

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#165

Post by ams6110 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #153
ak4g wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you eliminate private prisons entirely and leave everything else alone, a pitifully small proportion of the people wronged by the criminal justice system would even notice, let alone receiving fair recompense. It's not so much that they "should not" be fought against, it's that it barely matters. It is simply poor allocation of attention. Forest, trees, etc.

I'm pretty certain it matters to the 20% of federal prisoners, and 7 percent of state prisoners in those prisons. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/06/private-prisons-prof...

I take thatswrong0's point to be that you would likely find as much if not more corruption in the federal, state, and county prisons and jails as you do in private prisons. And I'm quite sure that's the case. Inmates are just too easy to take advantage of. They can't really complain to anyone and nobody (for the most part) cares.

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#166

Post by zem »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #90
zem wrote: post #3

> The reform passed 3:2 along partisan lines, with the appointed Democrat commissioners voting in favor, and Republicans against. it's kind of terrifying to think that a single republican in the wrong place could have blocked a measure affecting millions of people.

What are you trying to say? Pretty much every measure affects millions of people. Are you terrified to think that some things --no matter what!-- might get blocked?

no, my point was more along the lines of there being no reason other than pure obstructionism to block this particular ruling, and that a single person could have effectively killed it.

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#167

Post by refurb »

discardorama wrote: post #72
Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I don't understand why the Republicans voted against. Look, I get it, you support private industry. But let's remember context, you support capitalism where COMPETITION exists, in this situation it is an artificially created monopoly of one company. Now if they had an alternative proposal that required prisons to have two or more vendors, I'd be totally onboard with not setting an artificial price restriction. Since…

> I don't understand why the Republicans voted against. > Look, I get it, you support private industry. But let's remember context, you support capitalism where COMPETITION exists, in this situation it is an artificially created monopoly of one company. I hate to say this, but: most Republicans are not pro-competition. They're very happy helping the government put in place monopolies, and milking that monopoly status…

You mean Medicare, not Medicaid. Medicaid already "negotiates" lower drug prices.

I think the Republican stance comes from the perspective that you can never really "negotiate" with a body that writes and enforces all the laws.

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#168

Post by refurb »

grecy wrote: post #122
Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I don't understand why the Republicans voted against. Look, I get it, you support private industry. But let's remember context, you support capitalism where COMPETITION exists, in this situation it is an artificially created monopoly of one company. Now if they had an alternative proposal that required prisons to have two or more vendors, I'd be totally onboard with not setting an artificial price restriction. Since…

> I don't understand why the Republicans voted against. It's very simple, they support businesses making a ton of money. They don't care about competition, they don't care about regulation, they don't care about fair. They care about businesses making a boat load of money. End of story.

Then it makes sense why the Republicans were fighting to renew the Ex-Im bank charter which basically gives hand outs to corporations.

Oh wait, that was the Democrats! The Republicans actually killed it.

Re: The FCC has voted to end exorbitant phone fees for prison inmates

#170

Post by task_queue »

dangerlibrary wrote: post #29
spoiledtechie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds more liberal to me. To have a monopoly within a government entity.

Liberal in the Milton Friedman sense, not the Bernie Sanders sense.

Laissez-faire liberals might denounce Friedman as not being liberal enough. He supported social welfare and a basic income because he recognized that the market failed in those arenas. He supported a progressive tax system as well.

Suggesting any of those to today's classical liberal would cause them to froth at the mouth and denounce him as a socialist.

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