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Comment by baddox | Hacker News Reader

The article says the radio is "under 30 dollars." I would expect something like that to cost less than 5 dollars.

If it were sold at the commissary for $5, it'd be easier for inmates to afford (and keep in mind, as the article states, that inmates can only spend $320 a month on commissary goods).

The goal of the prison system is to make prisoners as miserable as possible by our current societal standards (I strongly believe that 500 years from now, our present prison system will seem as barbaric as public place executions seem to us now), not to make sure they can have a pleasant time.

I strongly believe that 500 years from now, our present prison system will seem as barbaric as public place executions seem to us now.

How about this year instead. There are countries that have an emphasis on rehabilitation, which reduces overall crime:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/25/norwegian-pri...

I completely agree, and I strongly believe that prisons are unethical and inhumane. In this case, I was referring to the general public perception- I wonder what percentage of Americans would agree with "the prison system is unethical".

Thanks for your link! A related book: "The Case Against Punishment" http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Against-Punishment-Retributio...

Then why not make it 40, or 50, or 60 dollars?

Apparently commissaries regularly raise prices on the inmates, so it may reach that price in the future.

To me, the current system seems as barbaric as public executions. I don't need to wait 500 years for that.

So, we could switch back to public executions without offending you any more than the current system does?

I mean, we still have the death penalty, so yeah.

> To me, the current system seems as barbaric as public executions.

I don't ordinarily downvote for content, but you've achieved a rare pitch of absurdity and I feel that should be recognized.

The prison commissary system (largely run by Keefe Group) tends to overprice and gouge for the vast majority of items they offer. This is not uncommon.

https://betweenthebars.org/posts/10910/the-prison-commissary

It's not actually bad at all:

http://www.bop.gov/locations/institution/dub/DUB_CommList.pd...

Dead

Sorry, I dropped a letter. It's:

http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/dub/DUB_CommList.p...

Profiting off of prison populations... unprecedented!

Ironic, huh?

It probably cost more than $5 for IBM to manufacture a CXA1129N integrated-circuit chip in the 1970s.

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