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Comment by ec109685 | Hacker News Reader

Bleh, the worse thing in the article are examples where the same goods are 2x the cost in one jail versus the other, despite being from the same provider. Allowing the gauging of families of folks in jail is foolish.

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In the US, at least, they milk the prisoner's families every way they can. Charges for phone calls, web-to-paper letters, commissary items, and so forth. They also withhold basic necessities like soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc, to drive up sales. And, policies like 2 meals a day (instead of 3) on weekends. They even take the first $100 of your prison account for health care charges. It's an embarrassment for a first world country.

Combined with the now ubiquitous cheap online background checks, one felony is enough to ruin your life forever. You end up being dependant on family members for life. The justice system in the US is built around some Puritan idea of punishment, with no notion of rehabilitation.

Source: Am one of those family members supporting a felon.

It's especially fun when they do inmate-led fundraisers, which means that they can get Subway, Pizza Hut, or other "street food", and charge the inmates triple, and then the fundraiser money goes into the yards pockets. Or the fact that they have their prison workforce doing jobs in small towns by the complex for $8 - $10 an hour and the inmate gets $0.50 - $1.00 of it. Prison labor like that is also something a "first world" country should be ashamed of. For-profit prisons should be outlawed.

Elections have consequences. US voter turnout is abysmal.

About 0.71% of the US population is incarcerated. It's much, much, higher than any other nation. But, still low enough that it doesn't get much attention from voters....even if they turned out in record numbers.

Media attention might make a bigger impact. I'm not sure the general public knows how bad the system is. Even if you're a "punishment" fan, the system is cranking out people that are more likely to commit further crime, since they have little chance to support themselves in a legal way.

Also, the loss of voting rights for people with felonies[1] means that the most likely to feel strongly on this issue are also ones that can’t express that opinion via voting.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement#In...

Let's not forget the substantial chunk of voters who want the system to be as brutal as possible.

Especially when the prisoners are minorities, who are easily dehumanized as evil "others".

Turnout is abysmal because so many people believe the system is rigged, and to some extent they're correct.

TDCJ you get indignant inmate package of a few stamps and paper per month, baking soda to brush your teeth and for makeshift deodorant, a tiny toothbrush once every 3 years and that's it. None of the jobs you do allow you to earn money, so inmates all trade or hustle for things from commissary such as shampoo.

In contrast, Arizona prison system has outside employment contractors where inmates can earn min wage, and when they are released X years later they often have savings in the tens of thousands to support them with a soft landing so they can go to school, or just get an apartment.

That's uplifting... so it isn't every state screwing people, just some of them. Thanks for the info.

Not-fun fact: jpay even charges $5 every time you add credit to an account. Now they're even starting to abolish in-person visitationa t some jails and prisons and force family members to use video visitation, because they can make money out of it.

I look forward tot he day when a lot of these predators are forced to swap places with the people they were abusing.

"Now they're even starting to abolish in-person visitationa t some jails and prisons and force family members to use video visitation"

Ugh. Haven't encountered this yet. That's truly shitty.

> one felony is enough to ruin your life forever.

This is by far the worst part. Almost all felonies are economic death sentences these days. There is no turning over a new leaf and getting a fresh start.

Very true. It used to be that small businesses did not have access to background checks, so you could slide by if you skipped the felon checkbox.

Now, every employer can check, so there is no escape. Getting a job is very difficult. There are a few companies that hire felons, but generally into menial roles with no growth potential.

But we as a society see prison as punishment, why should they get all of these goods in the first place? The whole thing boggles my mind personally, we supposedly want to reduce recidivism but how is treating prisoners the way we do in any way helping them return to society (save for the background check and sex offender registries doing extra damage on top).

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