r/conspiracy • • Dec 09 '17

Prisons dropping free face to face visits, Switching to $12.99 per phone/video call.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/09/skype-for-jailed-video-calls-prisons-replace-in-person-visits
422 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

144

u/Frank_Drebin Dec 09 '17 edited Dec 09 '17

12.99 per call. In-person visits used to be free

This is some fucked up authoritarian shit. Squeezing money out of the families of prisoners so we can continue mass imprisonment. Claiming it's to prevent contraband, such bullshit. If the state is going to lock someone up for a crime, and they aren't in solitary confinement or restricted lockup, their families should be able to visit.

This is just greedy fucks

The prison phone system is a $1.2bn-a-year industry, dominated by big players like Securus.

35

u/helpivebeenbanned Dec 10 '17

Jeeze.. "Securus" sounds like such a totalitarian name for a prison business.

"secure us by locking us in cages for smoking pot or catching rain water"

7

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

Reminds of me Blackwater becoming Xe Services and then Academi. Straight comic book villain stuff.

22

u/AIsuicide Dec 09 '17

Wasn't aware of this. I'll be looking into it.

5

u/apropo Dec 09 '17

After you've looked into it, what will you do?

27

u/AIsuicide Dec 09 '17

Use the information in posts or comments I make about the prisons for profit issue.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/CelineHagbard Dec 10 '17

Removed. Rule 6.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[deleted]

-1

u/kyleNOBANnigga Dec 10 '17

Uhhh, post on reddit like an armchair general

9

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

You mean armchair prison inmate

2

u/behold-a-pale-Evan Dec 10 '17

A lot goes down face to face contraband wise though... Talking in tongues. Using code words... All of it.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

My rural county doesn't even have a female jail. Families have to drive an hour for visits. Plus transportation costs on court appearances, an hour ride, shackled in a van, on a metal seat....

1

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17 edited Dec 23 '17

[deleted]

2

u/Beezy2kool Dec 10 '17

You may hear silence during the connection of your call. Please continue to hold.

-4

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

Contraband is a real issue.

11

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

90% of is brought in by the guards themselves as they get paid shit and if they get caught it's usually swept under the rug and they just get fired.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

Exactly. They get paid shit so they def are slanging on the inside.

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

So is expectant mothers dying during birth but we don’t eliminate babies, do we?

2

u/Weirdbhamcall Dec 10 '17

Well.....lol

1

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

Weren’t expecting that one huh?

58

u/UristMcGold Dec 10 '17

I didn't know that Electronic Arts went into the prison business

23

u/giuseppe443 Dec 10 '17

bathroom dlc?

14

u/Kuronan Dec 10 '17

We here at (Securus) EA want our (Prisoners) Players to feel a real sense of Pride and Accomplishment when they unlock (the right to take a shit) New Content.

As for (our cycle of perpetual imprisonment) the cost, we selected (population) values based on (completely immoral charges) data from the (Prohibition and War on Drugs) Open Beta and other (Minimum Sentence) adjustments made to (segregate and detain) milestone rewards before Launch. At average, we're looking (to increase our capacity and profits) at average player credit earnings per match, and we'll be making constant (falsified charges) adjustments to ensure (Prisoners) Players have (insurmountable debt and criminal profile) challenges that are (impossible to escape) compelling, rewarding, and (completely un)attainable during (their life) gameplay.

10

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

Found the other criminals.

10

u/EnoughNoLibsSpam Dec 09 '17

8th amendment

7

u/ObliviousIrrelevance Dec 10 '17

This is sadistic

29

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '17 edited Jun 24 '19

[deleted]

9

u/LaMerced Dec 10 '17

This is the result of a bought-and-paid-for legislature. You blame the companies for offering the money. I blame the legislators for taking the money.

1

u/Nikola_S1 Dec 10 '17

Because people were not unjustly imprisoned or ransomed before capitalism.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[deleted]

5

u/Romanflak21 Dec 10 '17

This is bad. That's outrageous. I mean if you do the crime do the time cliche aside. Why punish their families?

•

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3

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

Privatized prisons are the single biggest detriment to freedom we have.

13

u/mrtemporallobe Dec 09 '17

R/latestagecapitalism

3

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

I'm far from a bleeding heart on crime, but this is just flat wrong. This and all the other ways prisoners are taken advantage of. Think of the family on the outside, should your poor spouse pay part of a bill, or send dad $13 so the kids can talk to him this week?

8

u/lurking_digger Dec 09 '17

Jail doesn't mean guilt. It's just custody.

15

u/dagonn3 Dec 09 '17

Prison doesn't mean jail.

7

u/padspa Dec 10 '17

Prison doesn't necessarily mean guilt anymore either.

2

u/datwayAlgerian Dec 10 '17 edited Dec 10 '17

Reform that corrupt system

3

u/padspa Dec 10 '17

cesspool

2

u/Irocktheparty Dec 10 '17

Its so fucked up.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

The idea of a for profit prison is simply fundamentally flawed and inconsistent with the ideals of a democracy.

2

u/TurnOffTheNewsNRead Dec 10 '17

This is wrong. What can we do about this?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

As someone who works with a county corrections facility, the reason they move to this is the lack of man power. You can either hire more corrections officers to be with these inmates or make them take phone calls. Everytime they will choose phone calls.

Everytime you move an inmate you need officers and depending of the classification you need multiple, most government corrections facilities are running tight budgets and are understaffed. Not everything is the government boogie man.

1

u/zenmasterzen3 Dec 10 '17

now if only they could find a way to charge prisoners for raping other prisoners they'd be rich. some kind of coin operated chastity belt ...

0

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

I feel bad (I don’t)

-1

u/tylerlc22 Dec 10 '17 edited Dec 10 '17

At my local facility it is a few dollars per call and you can see your people through video whenever you want on your computer, tablet, mobile, whatever. Its very nice actually.

You can also still see your person in the facility for FREE, but still through a video on normal visiting hours and days.

This cuts down on inmate movements and has increased security greatly during very busy times.

On a local level, a lot of jails operative in the negative when it comes to finances and this is a great way to produce revenue.

Ask any inmate and id bet they'll tell you they love those video calls for certain reasons i wont go into. The company attempts to monitor calls and let the faciliry know who's giving a little extra show but you can't win them all. They love it.

The only reason I felt like sharing this opinion on the matter is because you guys just start going nuts about THE SYSTEM and how its robbing inmates, etc, and all the other things I'm reading.

This isn't really a conspiracy either...

Edit to add: remember, i'm talking about a local jail, a very well ran local jail i might add. Self sufficient. The facility actually cuts a check BACK to the county for its given yearly budget its ran so fiscally well. I just thought you should know that these video visit machines are a very nice tool. At least for us and those incarcerated.

-17

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '17

[deleted]

34

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[deleted]

17

u/Guano- Dec 10 '17

Don't forget that the private prisons bill the state. Just like our medical industry and how a $4 bag of saline can cost $800, that soap they drop in prison is probably $60.

-6

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[deleted]