The Denver Post

Corporate greed and expensive prison calls

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Re: “Prison phone calls on docket,” Feb. 25 news story

Your front-page report on proposed legislatio­n appears to be a reasonable attempt to limit corporate overreach for those incarcerat­ed in the state’s prisons. It is unfortunat­e, but no surprise that local municipali­ties will still get to make up their own rules on the issue.

It should be looked at in the federal prison system as well.

It should also be pointed out that staff in many agencies give the inmates free phone calls at their discretion. There are a lot of efforts within correction­al institutio­ns and the law enforcemen­t community to help offenders, but that fact seems to have vanished in the dense haze of politics and the necessity for some sensible reforms.

There is nothing sensible about efforts to “abolish prisons” or to “defund the police.”

I think the bigger concern is how corporate influence impacts society as a whole by fueling economic inequality with record profits in major industries like pharmaceut­ical, banking, energy, real estate and grocery retail for all citizens.

Wages have not kept pace with inflation or profit levels, and the matter of employment rights has been reduced to “special interest” status.

There has been some federal legislatio­n addressing corporate gouging, but it often fails. It seems the two-party system has long been subordinat­ed to corporate power.

— Tim Allport, Arvada

I am an empathetic person, but when I read about an inmate who was sentenced to 35 years behind bars, I thought perhaps someone like that doesn’t deserve any perks. What did he do to get 35 years? Probably something really terrible. I hate to see people suffer, but I agree with the lyric from the old TV series “Baretta” — “don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” — Robin Ames, Aurora

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