[nosuchthing]

  They speak roughly once a week in a 15-minute phone call, 
  and speak for another 25 minutes on a video chat. Jones 
  says she’d travel to Texas to visit her son in person, 
  but Hays County Jail, where he is locked up, banned 
  visitations in November 2013. That happened shortly after 
  the county jail entered into a contract with Securus.
   

  Since then, all family communication with inmates at Hays 
  County goes through Securus, which charges Jones about 
  $10 for a phone call and about $8 for a video visit.

http://atavist.ibtimes.com/fcc-prison-telecom-industry

[orangecat]

See also http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/10/inmate-calling-compa...

Apparently a large amount of those fees are paid back to the prisons via "commissions", so it's basically governments auctioning off the right to take advantage of prisoners and their families.

[mindslight]

It's essentially the same thing that has happened across many other areas of the economy - it's impractical to own slaves, so they're rented instead.