Bans on Smoking in Prison Shrink a Coveted Market

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | Wednesday, August 27, 2003 | VANESSA O'CONNELL

[presidio9]

RIKERS ISLAND, N.Y. -- For years, inmates trekked to the commissary, off a dingy hallway here in this huge New York City jail complex, to buy cigarettes. Tobacco companies also furnished them with free T-shirts and socks emblazoned with the Kool and Newport logos. Cigarette makers gave the jail sports equipment, board games and, for a time, cash awards that funded antiviolence videos and inmate holiday parties.

[cinFLA]

NY DCS charges 16 cents per minute plus $3.50 connection which is less than standard MCI collect call rates.

[cinFLA]

An actual free market would produce market-level prices, which is exactly what I am arguing is required.

He who violates free market ethics is removed from the free market. That's why we put them in prison.

[cinFLA]

Odd how people who usually respect free markets do such a fast U-turn when it comes to screwing over cons.

Hmmmm... I think the cons were put in prison for screwing over the free market system!

[thoughtomator]

Read the Constitution, let me know when you have a clue what it says.

[cinFLA]

Read the Constitution, let me know when you have a clue what it says.

Nowhere does it say that inmates get free phone calls although the EDC does provide for that service to pro-bono legal services. If you are so concerned, maybe your office should provide the pro-bono services and the inmates will get free calls to you.

[cinFLA]

Read the Constitution, let me know when you have a clue what it says.

It allows for us to imprison those that screw us over.

[presidio9]

If you are so concerned, maybe your office should provide the pro-bono services and the inmates will get free calls to you.

Fat chance, and quit assuming that he really is a paralegal just because he says he is.

[cinFLA]

You want to verify it, call any lawyer that deals in any aspect of criminal law and ask them, you have a phone book.

I did. They said they didn't know what you were talking about unless you were running a 900 service charging $5 per minute for your legal advice.

[cinFLA]

quit assuming that he really is a paralegal just because he says he is.

He did? I missed that.

[presidio9]

He did? I missed that.

He said he "work[s] in a law office." Notice that he did not say he is a lawyer. Maybe he's the janitor?

[cinFLA]

(Not exactly your $5+ per minute!)

Lucrative Telephone Contracts Hold Prison Callers Captive; Inmate Advocates Say Deals Are Financially Exploitative -
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 18, 1998

When Dannielle Hadley picks up the telephone to talk to her two teen-age sons, her loved ones dig deep into their pockets.

A typical 15-minute collect call to Philadelphia on a Saturday night costs her $ 7.05. The same call through AT&T's automated long-distance service would usually cost her $ 4.79.

But Hadley's circumstances are unusual: She's an inmate at the state Correctional Institution in Muncy, 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

[cinFLA]

I can name quite a few of them. Sussex County Jail, Elizabeth Detention Center, Wackenhut, Buffalo, Batavia, and Yuba County Jail are all places from which my office has been called at the indicated prices during the past two weeks.

Sheriff Untig's office does not confirm this number!

[cinFLA]

He said he "work[s] in a law office." Notice that he did not say he is a lawyer. Maybe he's the janitor?

Let's see. Computer access. No pressing agenda. Prompt noon lunch hour. Must be a clerk or receptionist.

[bethelgrad]

Geez. Next thing you know they will ban prison rape, cable, conjugal visits. It's a slippery slope to more government infringment on the rights of our prison population.

[metesky]

They shouldn't even be keeping racial statistics and prison rape would be history if it wasn't for the cowardly hacks that claim to run the institutions. Most prison rapes occur with either "willful blindness" or outright collusion with a hack or two.

They know where the blindspots are and in many cases, IMO, are afraid to go into these spots, or they wink and nod like the Gay-gun case or they take money.

Equal protection under the law.

[Myrddin]

Yeah well, when that also applies to calls to their lawyers, and taking into account that a lot of the people we're talking about have only been charged and haven't been convicted (and are therefore innocent in the eyes of the law), we are talking due-process violation.

Wrong. Prisons are used to house individuals who have been convicted of felonies with incarceration periods from 1 year to life. Jails are used for short term incarceration with periods under 1 year and for short term incarceration of individuals awaiting trial who have not yet been convicted, but are deemed a flight risk or danger to the community.

People who are in prison and making calls to their lawyers have been convicted and sentenced. Calls to their lawyers would be associated only with an appeals process.

[Gabz]

Anyone who has ever seen a post of mine knows just how opposed to smoking bans and restriction of tobacco sales I am, but could someone please explain to me why incarcerated CRIMINALS should have MORE rights than law abiding citizens????

they are carving out a niche in the 31 states that still allow smoking behind bars, as well as in the federal system's 103 prisons.

I can't smoke in a government building and I have never committed a crime - why should they have that right and not me?????????????