Posted on 03/30/2015 7:24:01 AM PDT by edwinland
Since the Pennsylvania police arrested Anthony Kofalt last March for walking out of a Walmart with 21 boxes of Crest White Strips he had not paid for, his wife, Heather, has spent $3,000 — about $60 a week — on phone calls to the prisons and jails where he has been held.
The cost of a 15-minute call is $12.95, although Mr. Kofalt is in a prison only a few hours’ drive from his wife’s home in Franklin, Pa. The cost for a similar non-prison call would be about 60 cents.
And every time Ms. Kofalt deposits $25 into the prison phone account, the private company that runs the system charges her $6.95.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Were it up to me the inmates would be forbidden to make or receive phone calls at all and we’d not be having this conversation.
No, I think that “The cost of a 15-minute call is $12.95” is theft.
I'm not defending the Great Big Giant Large Criminal Justice Machine. You are.
'Because we've ALWAYS done it that way...'
Aren’t you just the optimist? LOL! :)
No, as a matter of fact, on my Free Republic homepage, I have a LIST skewering the gruberment for getting in the way, and jacking up the price on everything with their butting-in-skyness.
Phone costs are not 86 cents a minute, not in this day and age.
Sounds a lot like the cut JP Morgan is getting from EBT cards, actually.
Of course, that happens upon arrest and everyone has the right to contact someone so they can arrange an attorney or bail.
An inmate is someone who has been convicted of a crime and incarcerated. They’ve lost most of their legal rights.
Access Corrections is not a phone provider. They act sort of like a Pay Pal for prisons. You deposit money to them and they pass it along to the inmate’s commissary account with charges for restitution and etc. being taken off first. In California the CDCR took off 95% of every deposit for my father. So for him three Twinkies actually cost about $100.
https://www.accesscorrections.com/
I don’t know about your sons’ prison but I remember IWTS was the phone company for my father’s prison.
This woman’s 19 year old son has 2 children.
Wow !
.
Try to get past your emotions.
You think since they are charging so much per minute someone is getting rich. If they were trying to get rich, they would lower the cost and sell more minutes which is basic economics.
So they have an expensive phone system with limited calls because they charge so much. Now can you put on your thinking cap and understand why they would do that?
You're clinging to your notion that the gruberment can do no wrong.
Maybe you have Daddy issues?
ROTFLMAO!
You actually believe that the gruberment understands or cares about "basic economics"!
That's what they have gunthugs for, True Believer.
Q: How much more does the gruberment pay when they drive up the price of gasoline with stupid energy policies?
A: The same as they paid before - a gun in your face, taxpeasant.
Free enterprise? Ha!
Are you familiar with the concept of monopoly pricing? How about price elasticity? Because, taking those two concepts together, and applying them in the prison context goes a pretty long way in explaining exactly why you are wrong.
In their steely-eyed view, a serial killer = a guy who stole White Strips from Walmart.
These people have pinwheels-for-eyes...
You actually believe that the gruberment understands or cares about “basic economics”!
They have limited used of a fixed cost resource so cost per minute is going to be higher. It is not the same as your cost. Cost per minute is higher to make the phone system available.
In addition, you keep the cost high to reduce usage. They system is not there to be at the beck and call of the inmates. but it is available if needed. and that is expensive unless you think the taxpayers are the ones who should subsidize the phone calls for the inmnates. Do you?
The gruberment doesn't care if it gets in your way, screws things up, or makes things cost more.
They have gunthugs for people who disagree with their attitude.
Quit emoting over your love for Big Gruberment.
Aren’t you just the optimist? LOL! :)
Conservatism is a philosophy and I would encourage you to read the following ten points of Conservative Principles. But I warn you, it will require thinking and reading skills:
http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/ten-conservative-principles
unless you think the taxpayers are the ones who should subsidize the phone calls for the inmnates. Do you?
But, but - these concepts don't FEEL good to our PeterPrinciple.
You appear to be casting Big Gruberment and its advocates in a bad light, Conscience - just stop it! Stop it NOW! LOL! :)
unless you think the taxpayers are the ones who should subsidize the phone calls for the inmnates. Do you?
Please answer the question.
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