My husband called the police on me during a (verbal) fight. I was arrested for alledging SPITTING on my husband (who, btw had in the past gave me a black eye, puntured ear drum and more…) Spitting is considered BATTERY and when committed in a domestic dispute, carries greater gravity.

In order to make my initial call out of LA jail (whether to a lawyer, or friend to bail me out) I had to make a collect call using the Global Tech Link (sic) phone.

When someone gets this collect call at home/cell, you have no way of knowing who the caller is. You have to set up an account. There is a set up charge, then a connection charge per call, and then you are charged minutes.

Prisoners should be allowed to make their “one telephone call” without this kind of system. Recipients should be able to know who is calling before accepting the call or having to set up an account. Family/friends of inmates should also have a choice which company to use so that their is free market competition. Does Sheriff Baca remember what that is?

HAVANA – Two of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s children said Thursday they were tired of seeing their father’s image used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka, calling the growth of the revolutionary as a global super-brand “embarrassing.”

Of course, they are not embarrassed that their father was a communist mass murderer.

Quit wearing t-shirts with his image!

• Does anyone here care about the victims or the families of victims who were killed? What does a phone call to Heaven cost? (In California, it’s long distance. In Georgia and Alabama, it’s a local call.)
• Does anyone here believe that the consequences of a criminals’s action on his family are because of him and not the prison authorities? Before someone commits a crime, he needs to think about the effect of what he does on those who care for him. Oh, but it’s “our” fault.
• Why do people fall for the idea that all convicts should get special privileges because certain journalists link them to a relative small number in jail awaiting trial?
• “…the amount of contact an inmate has with his or her family and community is among the top predictors determining a parolee’s success.” Yeah, that worked great when they were living with them before they committed the crimes.

Also, $3.5 million is a drop in the bucket to the prison budget and doesn’t make a dent in what it takes to house the criminals. That’s “lucrative?!” The $23 million a year that the L.A. jail earns (as opposed to your wording of $70 million over three years) is still not a major source of funds but does go to help offset costs.

And, guess what. Any revenues that jails and prisons forego have to be made up somewhere and do you know where that somewhere is? It’s the TAXPAYERS, who are the final victims of criminals.

Give me a break. You guys won’t be happy until the prison gates are thrown open and prisoners released on the honor program with an expense account.