From: malQRMassimilation@gmail.com   
      
   On Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 11:46:35PM -0500, Monty Solomon wrote:   
   > The prison phone call industry has been broken for decades, with   
   > telecommunications companies, like Global Tel Link and Pay Tel   
   > Communications, charging unfair fees for phone and video calls from   
   > inmates. These fees vary by state, but they involve the phone provider   
   > offering kickbacks to prisons and local governments using the money   
   > they collect from the friends and families of incarcerated people. The   
   > result is a $1.4 billion industry built on fees that dispropor-   
   > tionately affect women and people of color.   
      
   The prison phone system is no more or less broken than the prison   
   system itself, which has, at its core, the task of keeping taxpayers   
   willing to shell out their money for bloated and poorly trained “Law   
   Enforcement” organizations which closely resemble the Barney Fife Fan   
   Club, and for political parties which are willing - nay, eager - to   
   extract exorbitent phone call prices from those least able to pay.   
      
   I have written extensively about the high costs of doing business in   
   prisons, where I used to work for a subsidiary of Global Tel   
   Link. It's obvious, however, that the costs aren’t high enough to   
   disuade those whom feel compelled to accept $3.00-per-minute collect   
   phone calls, and therefore to help our political leaders avoid the   
   reductions in recidivism which follow improved communications between   
   inmates and their relatives and sweathearts.   
      
   Make no mistake: there are more hidden agendas here than we could find   
   in a Defense Department budget:   
      
   1. Lower recidivim means less crime, and therefore (Heaven Forfend!)   
      lower insurance rates for all the might-have-been victims of crimes   
      that will never be committed.   
      
   2. Lower crime rates mean more low-income agitators able to gather   
      support for reforms by going door-to-door at night in what used to   
      be “Hight-Crime” areas, and in so doing to create ornery, impolite,   
      and motivated voters whom tend to ask rude and embarassing   
      questions of candidates for public office.   
      
   3. Lower crime rates mean fewer sinecure jobs for the brothers-in-law,   
      uncles, sons, and lovers of politicians at every level of the state   
      government: prison guards, police, courts, etc., ad nauseam.   
      
   If we want to reform prison phone systems, let's first reform the   
   society that made them necessary. That's probably an easier task.   
      
   Bill Horne   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)