Massachusetts becomes fifth state to make prison calls free

Here (Maine) calls are almost $7.00/hr which is indeed outrageous, however the jobs pay 2-4x better than other prisons i've been in, the food is better, you are given more things like clothes that other prisons would make you pay for. And I am allowed to go to college, and even hold a job developing software.

So although it is absurd, I have been in other prisons where the calls are dirt cheap but they have shit food, they dont give you ANYTHING and there isn't shit for opportunities. I understand that sometimes the profit they make off the calls might be going to things like quality of the food, etc. I know that this is almost never the case, but I do know that it is somewhat the case here.

Prison is supposed to be rehabilitation, not a self-funding machine.

> Prison is supposed to be rehabilitation

That’s one part. The others are deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and restitution [1].

Letting prisoner’s work aids rehabilitation. Letting them earn further aids restitution.

[1] https://open.lib.umn.edu/criminallaw/chapter/1-5-the-purpose...

...according to one textbook, in one country, that happens to have the largest prison population in the world both per capita and in total.

> Retribution prevents future crime by removing the desire for personal avengement (in the form of assault, battery, and criminal homicide, for example) against the defendant. When victims or society discover that the defendant has been adequately punished for a crime, they achieve a certain satisfaction that our criminal procedure is working effectively, which enhances faith in law enforcement and our government.

And yet when victims and victim families are interviewed on this subject, most of them aren't terribly satisfied by criminals being "punished."

What they typically care about is that the person won't harm others, and that's where rehabilitation comes in.