Across the United States, hundreds of jails have eliminated in-person family visits over the last decade. Why has this happened? The answer highlights a profound flaw in how decisions too often get made in our legal system: for-profit jail telecom companies realized that they could earn more profit from phone and video calls if jails eliminated free in-person visits for families. So the companies offered sheriffs and county jails across the country a deal: if you eliminate family visits, we’ll give you a cut of the increased profits from the larger number of calls. This led to a wave across the country, as local jails sought to supplement their budgets with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from some of the poorest families in our society.
This came up in a John Oliver episode about prison labour, this episode I think: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqaNQ018zU
this dude rock. he talk about social problem in the fun way.
After Trevor Noah left The Daily Show and Colbert started pandering to liberal middle-aged white women after his move to CBS, I feel like Oliver is the only bearable talk show host on network television these days.
Honorable mention to Kimmel, though. He’s not a revolutionary, but he’s pretty funny.
Trevor Noah? you mean Jon Stewart?
Noah was smart but I never had fun watching him. He was too serious, and his delivery of the punchy low-blow jokes the writers gave him were never satisfying in the way Stewart somehow fills me with rage and makes me chuckle at the absurdity of it.
don’t even get me started on Jimmy Kimmel… the guy is a very talented actor with no brains, no real opinions and thinks absolutely everything is hilarious. I’d rather watch water boil than listen to his childish version of comedy. his writers do all the work, he’s a parrot with just enough brains to land the jokes and not enough to question the interests of his corporate media overlords.
Well, to each their own.