Prisoners are worth a lot of money to companies that make money from punishment. There is a price tag on their heads. Companies like prison telecoms, Securus, IC Solutions food service, Trinity, Keefe. Financial services like Securus and JPay charge outrageous fees for email, cards, music, games to their ‘captive’ customers.
The tablets the inmates use are cheap Chinese-made products that malfunction constantly. The Wi-Fi in Perryville is spotty at best, and in some cases nonexistent.
For-profit medical providers contribute to the needless suffering of the women too. Centurion Health has a contract with Perryville. They are sued for malpractice constantly. We have many horror stories about them posted on this blog. This health care provider routinely cuts corners, is deliberately understaffed, and denies medications and treatment to maximize profits.
The women and their families pay exorbitant amounts of money to Keefe for junk food just to subsist. They pay 2 or 3 times the price you’d pay on the outside for ramen, chips, and other unhealthy snacks.
Trinity provides often inedible rations served to Perryville residents. Think of the money they make by serving a meal that only costs them $0.60!
These prison pirates know that families will spend money on their loved ones, and they take advantage of that caring. Perryville will never be a clean, modern marvel of humanitarian treatment. But that doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to abuses it inflicts on the women, and their families.