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Massachusetts becomes fifth state to make prison calls free

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264 points toomuchtodo | 6 comments | 29 Nov 23 02:33 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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qingcharles ◴[29 Nov 23 07:53 UTC] No.38456705[source]▶
When I first went to jail (for being poor) it was costing me $1.50/min to call my family.

Six years later, when I was still locked up, my mother was dying of cancer and I could only afford to call her for five minutes a day.

Illinois at least dropped the prices of its prison calls to 1¢/min.

Amazing that this bill includes the county jails. Often jail and prison regulations are totally separate and jails usually get the short end of the stick.

And remember, it is never the prisoners that pay for the calls. It is always the friends and family having to put money onto the phone or commissary accounts. Often a male prisoner has left behind a woman and children and they have lost their primary income, but now they are being burdened with paying for phone calls, hygiene products, clothing and food for their loved one too.

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KennyBlanken ◴[29 Nov 23 08:42 UTC] No.38457018[source]▶
In case anyone else wants to "call BS" on this:

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_r...

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1. holbrad ◴[29 Nov 23 13:25 UTC] No.38459035[source]▶
I'm sure there are examples of abuse.

But I honestly don't see the problem in principle.

If a court issues you a fine and you simply ignore it, that's not a situation society can just ignore. If you are truly unable to pay, that's more complicated, but should not just simply magically resolve you of responsibility.

There has to be other measures to ensure that money is paid or an equivalent cost is beared. Garnishing wages being an obvious first step.

(This is especially true if fines were to scale with income/wealth)

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2. ExoticPearTree ◴[29 Nov 23 13:47 UTC] No.38459261[source]▶
Somehow I don't think it is that hard for the judge to find out if you're really poor and can't pay or you don't want to pay and take reasonable action. Jailing people for being poor is catch 22 with people's lives.
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3. nemo44x ◴[29 Nov 23 14:06 UTC] No.38459448[source]▶
I do agree that something needs to be extracted and it’s probably better to require community service than being locked up. If you can’t or won’t pay your debt to society through money then society can hire you to repay the debt.
4. edgyquant ◴[29 Nov 23 14:22 UTC] No.38459634[source]▶
People are not jailed for being poor. People make philosophical arguments for why that’s actually the case when people are arrested for breaking actual laws. None of the laws that send people to jail state it’s illegal to be poor. Getting arrested for trespassing isn’t getting arrested for being poor.

Not paying a fine? You committed a crime that led to the fine. The not paying is an after effect.

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5. Der_Einzige ◴[29 Nov 23 17:46 UTC] No.38462525{3}[source]▶
Jaywalking and other insane laws prove your wrong.

Making anyone who jaywalks go to jail is a miscarriage of justice.

6. qingcharles ◴[02 Dec 23 07:24 UTC] No.38496681[source]▶
All the people I was locked up with for "being poor" who were serving a sentence of conviction (as opposed to those in pretrial detention for inability to pay bond) were there because of child support payments.

Basically what happens is that often the court makes a poor determination of how much a person can afford to pay each month, and when they can't make the payments they are jailed for contempt of court (for violating a court order). Often the first thing states do is take away the person's driver's license as a warning before jailing them. This makes them unable to get to/from work and usually results in their unemployment.