Why is it so expensive to send a care package to someone in jail?

Factual Questions
21

I used to work for this company that made phone systems for prisons: http://www.latticeinc.com/products-and-solutions/inmate-telephone-systems/

I can tell you that a tremendous amount of modifications had to be made to off-the-shelf phone equipment to go into the prisons, and it was not uncommon for us to lose money on the sale (to beat out competitors for the contract) and then make it up with higher fees for the calls afterwards. It wouldn’t surprise me if the commissary management service industry works the same way, hence the high prices. I’m sure they also have a tremendous inspection process involving X-raying everything to ensure nothing is hidden inside sealed packages as well as some kind of documented process for how it gets from the distributor to the prison to ensure no substitutions either. After all, you don’t want sugar packets being substituted with cocaine inside, right?

22

Overcharging a captive clientele for basic services is the tip of the iceberg:

The Washington Post: “How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about”

Mother Jones: “Here’s the Latest Evidence of How Private Prisons Are Exploiting Inmates for Profit”

David Yankovich, Huffpost Politics: “Private Prisons Embrace Corruption to Boost Profits”

There is an entire industry dedicated to charging more for basic necessities, keeping people in prison longer, and providing no services for any kind of occupational training, mental health evaluation or therapy, or any attempt at rehabilitation. And none of this has anything to do with “paying one’s debt to society”: it is purely about lining the pockets of the companies running these prisons.

Stranger

23

Once sold a book to a guy in prison from my Amazon store. The prison returned it saying that the inmates weren’t allow to receive hardcover books, (paperbacks were alright though).