Let's argue in the realm of "should" for a bit. Justice: What should a society permit itself in punishing prisoners (and let's stipulate that the ones we're ta

Let's argue in the realm of "should" for a bit. Justice: What should a society permit itself in punishing prisoners (and let's stipulate that the ones we're talking about are guilty as charged, even though many many many are not.) Is it ok to malnourish them? Is it ok to punish their families and friends, who haven't been convicted of crimes? Is it ok to deprive prisoners of outside contact? In other words, where to you draw the line? (And if you don't draw the line, Abu Ghraib is the next stop.) Pragmatism: As others have noted, if you're going to admit a prisoner back into society in, say, five years, does it make sense to reduce their coping and job skills in prison so that they will likely do worse when they get out? And again, where do you draw the line? Regarding contraband: it's even worse than you hint at, today. Prisons are taking all sorts of measures to keep opioids from getting in. You can soak a greeting card or letter paper in water soluble drugs which can then be extracted once the document is inside. So my friend now only get printed out scans of letters and cards, not the cards themselves. So, yeah, security is an issue, too, but I don't think that justifies $25/fifteen minute phone calls, do you?