MCI RAPES INMATES' FAMILIES - UNBELIEVABLE COST OF COMMUNICATION WITH LOVED ONES BEHIND THE WALLS - Government - http://maxpages.com/darkevilworld/MCI_Rapes_Inmates

REACH OUT & TOUCH SOMEONE:
DYNAMICS OF MCI'S TELEPHONE EXTORTION CONSPIRACY

All around the country prisoners' families and friends are anguishing over the patently unfair and undoubtedly real extortion they must endure to be able to talk on the phone with someone they love and who is incarcerated. Tens of thousands of people know the bitter unfairness and hardships that the inmate telephone systems bring to and work in their lives, and they know that "something" is wrong with this extortion without being able to put their fingers on exactly what it is. Those few persons around the country who have filed lawsuits trying to stop the abuse are to be commended, but there are certain dynamics of the telephone racketeering scheme that few people seem to have thought about, much less actually made an issue of suit. Therefore, it is my hope that this article will stir both some insight and some action to bring MCI and the Arkansas Department of Correction to account. I am convinced that a conspiracy to racketeer exists, and that its blueprint can readily be identified not only here in Arkansas but in any prison system in which MCI has installed telephones. The plot is slick, but really not all that complex.

I want to briefly introduce some concepts that may be of help in identifying some of the dynamics of and the blueprint for what I believe to be the conspiracy among the handful of corporate executives involved with inmate telephone systems. Their objective, of course, is to fleece vulnerable families for hundreds of millions of dollars a year by charging outrageous phone rates, padding the billings, and keeping the consumers in the dark regarding the true phone rates at least long enough to sting them for a tidy little sum of money before they wake up. Because of the emotional blackmail involved with inmate phones few people are willing to make a real challenge to MCI or the ADC fearing that lodging persistent or official complaints will only disrupt or completely terminate their ability to talk to a loved one confined.

In contemplating legal action against a corporation like MCI, it is important to first recognize the harsh truth that because MCI and corporations like it generate hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of dollars annually, MCI really doesn't give a damn about lawsuits. At least not run-of-the-mill lawsuits. On a national scale MCI makes 100 millions a year or more just on inmates' phone calls alone, and there is no question at all in my mind that they set aside $10 or $20 millions of the annual gross simply as "insurance" against any lawsuits that MIGHT be filed. I say MIGHT be filed, because taking on a mega-corporation would likely financially bankrupt virtually any individual, even if they could endure the many other and intangible "costs" of Litigation. Indeed, unless MCI gets itself into a corner like the tobacco corporations or car manufacturers have in recent years, a handful of disgruntled "peon" citizens who "might" file a lawsuit simply are no threat to people like MCI, and that will be even more true if MCI merges with the Sprint corporation as planned. Lawsuits are the equivalent of tax write-offs for them. Even under the best of circumstances (for us, and worst-case scenarios for them) MCI might have to reimburse an overcharge now and then to the relatively few people who are "persistent" enough to show that they mean business about being fairly treated, or who might be angry enough or be pushed far enough to dare to pursue litigation if MCI does not sooth their anger and outrage.

I know from reading some of the e-mails that Linda sends to me in hard copy, for example, that at least some of you have gotten your "billings" corrected. But, what was reimbursing you a few hundred dollars with an apology...while hundreds of thousands of other people not as outspoken or assertive as you were fleeced out of millions of dollars anyway? By that I mean that it is good that you succeeded - but MCI already knew that the odds were against anything more serious coming from a few angry voices.

In your-e-mails some of you have also inquired whether contact was made with local Attorneys General by others who want to fight - by way of the consumer complaint and protection divisions of which these guys are supposed to be in charge. However, does anyone really believe that a typical Attorney General in the employ of a State is going to aggressively and comprehensively "attack" a corporation that is bringing millions of dollars into the State's treasury? Sure, a legal skirmish MUST be engaged sometimes when enough citizens get outraged, just to make a show, but it is my opinion that corporations like MCI already have that kind of litigation plan considered as well, and that MCI sets aside a few million dollars extra "just in case" some A.G. gets a little huffy and a little too aggressive. Let's face it - even the tobacco companies would not be under assault like they are if AGs everywhere did not see the influx of mountains of $$$$$$$$$$ to the State's coffers far above what they would have made from taxes from cigarette sales alone. Now, they can collect both the elevated taxes on higher-priced cigarettes and rake in billions from the lawsuit settlements. In the meantime few AGs seem to care that millions of people remain addicted to, and that hundreds of thousands of people a year die from smoking a known poison. Just tax it, and fine it, and that's good enough. Tobacco keeps being sold, just like poorly designed autos keep being sold, just like MCI and the ADC continue to rape the consumer regarding the inmate telephone systems.

The point being: It is simply common sense and a "good business strategy" (even if unethical or worse) for any corporation like MCI to be prepared to protect the bottom line even against contingencies like lawsuits by individuals or State AGs. A certain "low ceiling" profit margin is pre-set - and a flexible "high ceiling" one is then projected as total "windfall" profit; profit that even the corporations DON'T EXPECT to last forever, but which generate hundreds of millions of dollars "extra" in whatever time they are allowed to generate profit unchallenged. It appears that in most prison systems MCI has a free ride for at least the first 2 to 5 years. Overcharging, raising rates without notice, and re-charging "hook up" fees on inmate calls by allowing time-limited calls to run over into a second segment, ad infinitum, are all windfall profits to MCI. In my opinion they are also all a well-calculated and premeditated strategy and conspiracy that MCI and the ADC will continue to implement until the consumers get angry enough to file a lawsuit. The right kind of lawsuit.

These general matters are significant to think about in the context of inmate phones, because in the past 10 years especially, the courts of the land have been systematically dismantling the laws relating to "criminal justice" that previous courts spent forty or fifty years implementing. For example, avenues of litigation for prisoners have been almost totally shut down. "Security" is the all-powerful by-word and excuse given for EVERYTHING (including the extorted costs of inmate phone systems). A claim of "security" is legally like an edict from God, and a potion of impossible magic and legal alchemy for the powers that be. Consequently, there are many "constitutional" violations that occur regarding inmate telephone calls that no INMATE plaintiff can ever prevail on, simply because the courts apply an entirely different standard of law to prisoners than they do to free citizens. Therein also lies a key for a successful suit against MCI; meaning that a successful suit should not name inmates as plaintiffs -- simply because the presence of inmate plaintiffs will allow the courts to inject the entire body of "prison law" into the case to undermine the relative strength of the claims. If only free citizens bring suit, prison law will still be injected into the case where the issues between the free world and inmates overlap, but it will be MUCH MORE difficult for the courts to ignore MCI's or the ADC's violations of free citizens rights relative to the phones.

What is going on in Arkansas prisons also better "reveals" certain Legal issues relating to the inmate phones that have not apparently been raised in legal forums elsewhere. For example, if an actual conspiracy to improperly profit from the inmate phone system can be proven against MCI and the ADC, they will have a real problem on their hands. That is so because a proven conspiracy would almost automatically elevate the case into "PUNITIVE DAMAGES" liability. Otherwise, proof of simple negligence or incompetence can easily be whitewashed by MCI by reimbursements to the consumers or by "good faith" compromises in the courts. However, if a jury finds MCI to have done what it has done in virtually all prison systems in bad faith,then all their windfall profits, insurance, and any other tactics and strategies will not prevail, and not only will bills be straightened out and overcharges be reimbursed...but MCI and the ADC might actually have to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars to the suing class as punitive damages.

A potentially successful lawsuit over inmates' phones, then, must find a way to assert and to prove claims that would make MCI and the ADC subject to punitive damages. THAT would make them take note, just as most corporations everywhere fear the kinds of claims that may result in punitive damages. Just ask the tobacco corporations and the car manufacturers who have been sued lately.

I realize that there are a lot of conspiracy nuts in the world nowadays - but in essence, a bona fide conspiracy is usually made visible through a PATTERN of conduct by someone like MCI and the ADC. Since I don't have enough details about how MCI operates in other prison systems individually or what "stages" those systems went through to get where they are today - it would be hard to state with any certainty what "common denominators" exists in ALL prison systems in which MCI has set up its inmate phone extortion scheme. But, I wager that there ARE in fact common denominators to identify, and once that is done, a conspiracy should not be that difficult to prove.

For these reasons, I want to express in some detail about how MCI "has done it" here in Arkansas; and what BLUEPRINT it has followed here as the problems with the inmate phone extortion has progressed over time. I feel that when someone then COMPARES how it is being done in Arkansas to any and all other prison systems that MCI currently "serves" - it will be discovered that MCI did almost identically the same thing in each of those other states as well. If that is true, they will not be able to plead ignorance or "good faith" mistakes - and a jury might well be persuaded that a conspiracy has in fact existed and that significant punitive damages are in fact warranted. People everywhere are getting sick and tired of what corporate giants are doing to them. So, allow me to detail a few elements of how MCI does things here in Arkansas, and people in other states trying to fight the same extortion may be able to show MCI's conspiratorial plan on a national or even international scale. Maybe MCI can be taken down the same garbage dump road as the tobacco corporations and car manufacturers....

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