comment: >
  
  You want the president to pay for your HVAC?
  And think reducing the cost of prisoner phone calls is somehow taking away from that?
context: It should be free. Inmates have no freedom. The govt is in absolute control of them. Things like food, water, toiletries, etc are the responsibility of the govt. It isn't as if a prison inmate can choose to get a part time job to pay for anything. >
  
  I wouldn't mind if it was like making a normal payphone call, but my understanding is that it is a lot more expensive.  Inmates need to be rehabilitated, not just punished. Being able to talk with family is important for their mental health as well >
  
  Every inmate telephone I've used required two way recording and a disclaimer about it. Many only allow inmates to call people on pre approved lists. 
  Some also have features to disconnect a call if a three way call is attempted.
  My opinion, usually the phone area is crowded, dirty, broken, disconnected, and sometimes dangerous. Affordable and convenient phone communication will always be expensive. I haven't been incarcerated for a long time, and I've seen stuff like JPay emails and messages that are probably a much better way to communicate. I think the best solution is to stop arresting so many people. I did a a whole week of grand jury recently and 90% of crimes were so ridiculous. Small drug possessions of people who are already in a desperate or bad place, easy to target they can't keep up on normal life priorities. Also petty arguments and chronically repeat domestic offenses of a push or scratch. There were 2 total cases that were actually bad people who needed to be put away, and both were long periods of sexual abuse that could have been stopped,  but guess what, the police were to busy arresting Jimmy for his late registration and .001 burnt weed crumb on his seat. >
  
  Okay maybe they should charge 10x more than they do on the outside then instead of 100x or 1000x >
  
  Maybe they will and maybe the guy who his mom died and he couldn't call her has a psychotic break up on release and victimizes you? >
  
  Why would making the phone calls cheaper make someone less able to make a phone call? >
  
  Sorry I read your comment wrong. I thought you were the guy complaining about his mortgage. >
  
  About time.  That always felt like kicking a man while they’re down. >
  
  It's only changing the price to be less unreasonable. It's still unreasonably expensive. >
  
  It's hard to garner sympathy for people who could be absolute monsters, but our treatment of prisoners is a part of a larger deal being negotiated to the greater society, and we're negotiating a horrible deal for society.
  Most of these guys are going to get out eventually. They WILL be back in society, even if just for a moment. Do you want them coming back into society continuing their horrible behaviors / exhibiting worse behaviors, or would you prefer they return to society rehabilitated as free people allowed to enjoy their rights? 
  
  We have this pervasive "Justice B*ner" culture across all walks of life that drives many of the shortcomings of our justice system. There are certain videos here on Reddit even that get frequently reposted and the comments turn into a contest of who can say the worst thing about the criminal involved.
  
  We don't elect District Attorneys who promise to be fair; we elect the ones who promise to be "tough on crime"
  We fight every accommodation made to prisoners that could help with their rehabilitation because "they don't deserve it when I have to pay for it" - think about college classes, certifications, etc given in-prison. 
  We for some time have kind of agreed that once's "debt to society" is something that can never actually be repaid. If you're a sex offender of even a mild degree (was busted for public nudity during a psychosis episode or something), your life will forever be tethered to the restrictions associated with that moment of your life. Even if your crime was victimless but remains serious nonetheless, your felon status will prevent you from legally doing a ton of stuff even after you burn away years in a prison cell. 
  
  And of course - phone calls and commissary. Both are intentionally inflated in price, and it not only affects the prisoner, but their families who are not the ones who are supposed to be punished for a crime. As for the spending power of a prisoner, earning pennies an hour to spend on commissary...what is that? 
  Finally - the states that require prisoners financially repay their incarceration fees. That serves no real purpose other than to ensure they wind up back in prison.
  - >
  
  My sisters stalker would call our house from prison when I was a child. We wouldn’t accept the call but the fact that he was able to ring our phone was f-ed up. This was in the early 90s. >
  
  Obviously you were young so if you don't know no worries. 
  Did your sister/parents ever contact the police/prison? I'd imagine if he was a stalker then there was an active restraining order against him and I'd guess phone calls would be In violation of that and just increase his sentence further. >
  
  My sister doesn’t have much memory of the stalker she was less aware than we were. She moved and he didn’t realize it. >
  
  And why aren't we just making them free? >
  
  All I am reading is billions of tax payer’s money will go towards paying prison owners for something that should be free. >
  
  I didn't even read it but here's a simpler solution, stop putting people in prison. It should be exclusive for highly violent and dangerous offenders. >
  
  What about white collar crimes?  Should the criminals scamming people for millions of dollars just need to pay a fine? >
  
  That’s all they already do, just make the fine proceeds of the scam + some ridiculous amount >
  
  1.5-2x the amount of revenue created from the illegal activity + base jail time or additional financial sanction for their crime. Maybe scale the amount by quantity of people affected - business to business fuckery, your customers, all the customers (banks, major data breaches etc)
  You have to punish them hard enough that preventative action to prevent corruption is the better expense. >
  
  You mean eliminate profits. >
  
  He could end the war on drugs and have non-violent offenders' convictions overturned.
  But no. "Reefer madness." >
  
  
  He could end the war on drugs and have non-violent offenders' convictions overturned.
  
  Legalizing MJ has to be done by congress, and he already pardoned federal convictions. >
  
  The DEA (more like a militarized FDA) controls the schedule and somewhat recently redetermined cannabis still belongs on schedule 1 (The DEA made a big decision on marijuana, but it wasn't the one everyone was hoping for), justifying the DEA's continued budget and existence instead of the FDA regulating drugs, despite  demonstrable legitimate medical benefits of cannabis and countless other drugs. Quite frankly, the DEA shouldn't even exist, it's a deadly redundancy of the Food and Drug Administration. And the war on drugs is the DEA's "Vietnam". 
  The DEA raided the wrong house and managed to throw a flashbang into a crib with a toddler who received 3rd degree burns and had to be placed in a medically-induced coma. Then there's gems like this, DEA Not Liable for Truck Destroyed in Firefight
  , and this DEA idiot shoots himself teaching gun safety! and, who can ignore their contributions to sex trafficking, Report: DEA agents had ‘sex parties’ with prostitutes hired by drug cartels.
  And Biden by no means gets a pass.
  How an early Biden crime bill created the sentencing disparity for crack and cocaine trafficking 
  and THE UNTOLD STORY: JOE BIDEN PUSHED RONALD REAGAN TO RAMP UP INCARCERATION — NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND 
  and Joe Biden’s long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained
  
  Just sayin, Congress can't be the excuse for everything. But there is plenty of blame to go around. Also, Biden's been in national office since 1973 and was the Democrats biggest supporter of the war on drugs, particularly during the Reagan years when AIDS was being spread, partly, by dirty needles, not just "gay sex". And speaking of Reagan, Iran-Contra, and the CIA selling yayo in America, and the birth of MS-13.
  I have PTSD. My service dog just recently saved my life when I was found out in the cold barely conscious and hallucinating with a core body temperature of 80.8 degrees farenheit according to my hospital discharge papers. He alerted someone for help and curled up next to me to try and keep me warm. I spent 3 days in the ICU and 3 weeks in the hospital, and the drugs that can help treat my PTSD are criminalized because of bullshit propaganda, misinformation, corporate greed, and corrupt politicians.
  Imagine if asthma inhalers or EpiPens were criminalized at the federal level. Or any other commonly used life-saving drugs.
  I'm sorry but I'm sick of the bullshit and excuses. >
  
  Why isn’t it free? The only restriction they should have is how often/how long they can talk…largely so everyone gets time. 
  At this point, that should be a basic human right and not require money. >
  
  How about you ease the amount of prisoners in jail for nonviolent marijuana charges? Because that shit is middle ages type levels of injustice at this point, I mean so many states have it recreationally legal and we just traded brittney for a war criminal even though it was for weed which is not federally legal yet here in the US. Legalize it NOW >
  
  If you think prison calls are too expensive (they are) they are much cheaper than jail. At least in my experience. >
  
  i cant get any help with my mortgage or kids tuition, or a heating unit for the house...guess i should get a 3rd job.....but hey lets give convicts cheaper phone calls. what else do they have to do?