What Exactly is the Michigan Prison System Securing?

 Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top priority in prison is security. In fact, security decisions often trump common sense, in the abundance of caution. I suppose security should be a primary goal of prison. 

However, "security" can be used to excuse injustices, too. I've seen the excuse of security used to justify keeping covid-era prison policies in place, for example. The increased restrictions in prison during covid were a boon to the prison industry. It provided the justification for reducing prisoner movement, for reducing visits from friends and family members, for cancelling programs, classes, and activities that helped to make prison a rehabilitative place. Many of those restrictions continue today.

Yet, even prior to the pandemic, "security" has been used by the prison system to justify things that would never fly outside of the prison environment. 

For example, monopolies and oligopolies flourish in the prison system. In the name of security, we are only allowed to purchase food and hygiene items from one vendor--a government sanctioned monopoly. We are also forced to use only one phone vendor, and one email/music vendor. These, too, are government sanctioned monopolies. And if you don't agree to the absolutely insane terms of these vendors, you can't use their services. 

The terms of use include things like, "you can't sue us for any reason" and "if we take your money and don't provide the promised services, tough luck." Okay, those are tongue in cheek, but their legalese terminology essentially says these very things. The Michigan Department of Corrections not only allows these ludicrous terms of service, they benefit from kickbacks from these providers. 

Recently, my girlfriend had concerns about how quickly the phone provider was deducting her funds for phone calls. When she called GTL, our monopolistic phone service provider, to ask for an account statement, she was told by GTL's customer service, "You'll have to get a court subpoena for that." For an account statement of her own money?! That sounds fishy as hell! 

So, I went to bat on my end. I contacted our facility's "manager" who deals with things like vendor contracts and services, and explained the situation. I explained how this sounded like protecting fraud and asked for help resolving the situation. His response? "Contact GTL customer service." It's a typical prison pass-off move so the staff member doesn't have to deal with a problem he's responsible for helping with. 

If a government agency forces people to utilize only a service the agency approves, gets a kickback from the use of that service, and then protects potentially fraudulent practices from the company providing that service, that reeks of collusion. With the Michigan prison system protecting these vendors, it would take a court order to even discover if fraud is occurring. Who has the kind of money to get the court involved, especially when the terms of service prohibit lawsuits? It's a catch-22, and the vendors and the prison system know it. 

Perhaps this situation is nothing but abject apathy that is common in the prison system or system errors from the vendor. But it could also be fraud. We'll never know when the prison system shields itself and its monopolistic vendors from accountability.