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Public jails are doing the same things because companies that provide those services lobby them to do it. The FCC under Obama had capped the amount they could c

Public jails are doing the same things because companies that provide those services lobby them to do it. The FCC under Obama had capped the amount they could charge which was promptly undone with government changes. This also ignores known stories such as an example where a judge had a stake in a private prison company (or was bribed outright?) And as a result was sentencing school kids to prison for things which probably needed detention at worst. And this went on for a decade. The prison system in the US is not good to begin with. Largely because the citizens look at prison as retribution rather than rehabilitation. But the private nature only adds to and exacerbates issues.

rapind 7y ago
The problem here is corporate capture. These companies are raking it in with huge margins which would be super attractive to large amounts of competition... if competition could compete in a free market instead of buddying up with government officials. Offering cheap phone calls isn't exactly rocket science.
cldellow 7y ago
Agreed, there's lots of work to do in public prison reform, too. FWIW, the judges you mention are probably the two in the Kids for cash scandal [1]. They're currently serving sentences ranging from 17 to 28 years. Good riddance. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
- bsder 7y ago
  Yeah, the worst part is that these jerks would be out by now if they kept their mouths shut--they should rot permanently. Thank God they opened their mouths, pissed off the judge overseeing their plea agreement who then yanked it, and got sentenced to about 3 times the jail time they would have had otherwise.
deleted 7y ago
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hanniabu 7y ago
> The FCC under Obama had capped the amount they could charge which was promptly undone with government changes. We see this time and time again. There really needs to be a better protocol for this. It takes so much time and effort to make these laws, yet they can be undone in a heartbeat. It's an inherently flawed system.
- mrguyorama 7y ago
  These things COULD go through a functioning legislature. Functioning being the key word. When you have one party who outright states that they will stop any and all work in the legislature just because Obama is president, and the citizenry continues to re-elect that party, what else do you do? What else SHOULD you do?
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    > These things COULD go through a functioning legislature Which would just make them subject to switching when the legislative majority changed, rather than actually fundamentally changing the situation. But I'm not sure either is really a problem: otherwise, bad laws would be impervious to change, too. If you want good laws, you have to keep electing good government.
    - mrguyorama 7y ago
      True but there are multiple levels of law "inertia", and stuff passed through congress at one point carried more of it
- dahfizz 7y ago
  > It takes so much time and effort to make these laws, yet they can be undone in a heartbeat. The whole problem is that these were not laws. The FCC does not make laws. If it had been done through Congress, it would have been a more lasting change. But anything one president can unilaterally do, the next can unilaterally undo.

rapind 7y ago

The problem here is corporate capture. These companies are raking it in with huge margins which would be super attractive to large amounts of competition... if competition could compete in a free market instead of buddying up with government officials. Offering cheap phone calls isn't exactly rocket science.

cldellow 7y ago

Agreed, there's lots of work to do in public prison reform, too. FWIW, the judges you mention are probably the two in the Kids for cash scandal [1]. They're currently serving sentences ranging from 17 to 28 years. Good riddance. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

bsder 7y ago
Yeah, the worst part is that these jerks would be out by now if they kept their mouths shut--they should rot permanently. Thank God they opened their mouths, pissed off the judge overseeing their plea agreement who then yanked it, and got sentenced to about 3 times the jail time they would have had otherwise.

deleted 7y ago

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hanniabu 7y ago

> The FCC under Obama had capped the amount they could charge which was promptly undone with government changes. We see this time and time again. There really needs to be a better protocol for this. It takes so much time and effort to make these laws, yet they can be undone in a heartbeat. It's an inherently flawed system.

mrguyorama 7y ago
These things COULD go through a functioning legislature. Functioning being the key word. When you have one party who outright states that they will stop any and all work in the legislature just because Obama is president, and the citizenry continues to re-elect that party, what else do you do? What else SHOULD you do?
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > These things COULD go through a functioning legislature Which would just make them subject to switching when the legislative majority changed, rather than actually fundamentally changing the situation. But I'm not sure either is really a problem: otherwise, bad laws would be impervious to change, too. If you want good laws, you have to keep electing good government.
  - mrguyorama 7y ago
    True but there are multiple levels of law "inertia", and stuff passed through congress at one point carried more of it
dahfizz 7y ago
> It takes so much time and effort to make these laws, yet they can be undone in a heartbeat. The whole problem is that these were not laws. The FCC does not make laws. If it had been done through Congress, it would have been a more lasting change. But anything one president can unilaterally do, the next can unilaterally undo.