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I'm pretty sure that the loved ones of prisoners are being punished (by, you know, being physically separated from the prisoners) regardless of the cost of phon
by harryh 11y ago
I'm pretty sure that the loved ones of prisoners are being punished (by, you know, being physically separated from the prisoners) regardless of the cost of phone calls. Again, I'm not saying you're wrong. Were I a Mississippian, I'd prolly be in favor of cheaper phone calls for prisoners. But aren't we drawing a line in kind of a weird place?
- OK to lock someone up in a cage.
- OK to charge them $0.11/minute to talk to someone outside of that cage.
- NOT OK to charge $1/minute to talk to someone outside of that cage.
And given how weird that line is, should it really be drawn by outsiders who feel no effects of where the line is drawn?
- toomuchtodo 11y ago> And given how weird that line is, should it really be drawn by outsiders who feel no effects of where the line is drawn? Yes. That how treating humans humanely works.
- harryh 11y agoWhy are outsiders better equipped to decide what is and is not humane than members of the actual community in question?
- toomuchtodo 11y agoBecause human rights are, as they say, "inalienable"; the local community doesn't get to vote on them.
- harryh 11y agoInexpensive phone calls are a human right? Keep in mind this wasn't a ruling by SCOTUS citing the constitution. It was a ruling by the FCC meaning that ultimately it WAS a community voting on them. The only debate here is the size of the community that should get a vote.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoYou are free to your opinion. Preventing someone from keeping in touch with their family while they're in prison through extortion-level pricing of communications services is violating their rights, and the FCC appears to agree. If it has to go to SCOTUS, so be it.