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| Prisons Are Making Inmates Pay To Email Their Families, Lawyers |
| By ibtimes.com- Adam Lidgett |
| Published: 01/27/2016 |
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In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” defending his practice of nonviolent resistance to racism. If King were in jail today, however, he might have to send the letter through 27 separate messages, and he would have to pay for every one of them. Private companies are increasingly offering prisons an electronic messaging system similar to email for prisoners to communicate with loved ones and lawyers. The process has been called predatory for charging prisoners high fees to send limited messages, according to a report released last week by the Massachusetts-based think tank the Prison Policy Initiative. Attorneys have argued that the system also doesn’t afford inmates the attorney-client privilege inherent in face-to-face conversations, while supporters say it allows prisoners to keep in better contact with their families. “This is a totally predatory system. This is being done to monetize human contact between prisoners and their families,” Paul Wright, director of the Florida-based prisoner advocacy group the Human Rights Defense Center, said. “They set up these elaborate systems to basically charge people.” Read More. |
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