The families pay

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So your loved one is incarcerated, and that's when you find out how our prison system is designed to hurt families, and not at all set up to prevent recidivism. You bang your head against the wall, and then you deal with it, because you have little power to change it. Phone calls for example. When my niece was briefly incarcerated in Florida, I helped out my brother and sister-in-law with a one time deposit so that they could talk to her. For my $25, of which the for profit prison phone company took an $8 fee off the top, they were able to talk for about 15 minutes. Now imaging a daily 15 minute conversation, and how much that would cost you. Care packages - nope, this place didn't allow packages at all. Not only that, but letters must be addressed just so, no pictures or flowered stickers on the envelope, no family pictures in the letter, nothing. You can't send clothing, they have to buy it from the commissary. You can only send books directly from the publisher. I know they want to prevent contraband, but c'mon. Nothing like completely dehumanizing a person while they're incarcerated. And distance. Let's just take California as an example. You could be down in San Diego, and your loved one could be in Susanville or Crescent City, which is at least a day's drive, fuel cost, etc., just for a no contact visit. Or you could show up and find that the person just got transferred to Tehachapi with no notice, or to a different cell block with different visiting days. Why do they do this? To make prison administration easier is my guess. It certainly isn't done with families in mind. And then there's the new rule that allows them to strip search your mama if a drug sniffing dog looks at her funny, despite the fact that most contraband comes in via prison employees. And classes to help educate people so they can get a job when they get out? Practically non existent due to budget cuts and "tough on crime" programs. Some prisoners do get jobs inside that help them pay for things, but they are paid slave wages for jobs that for profit companies could be paying a living wage to people outside. Now a program where they offer the person the same job outside prison would actually be useful. How is any of this helping society?