BRIAN BABYLON

Vacation Babylon is Back!! On Fem Weds

Molly Adams and Brian Babylon spoke to the rabble-rousing duo Dr. Cornel West and Travis Smiley, hosts of the Smiley & West show from Public Radio International, about their new book: The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. Dr. West and Mr. Smiley shared their thoughts on...

Sad poppa.

Cook County makes money on each call and not just a little money. Using the Freedom of Information Act I got a copy of the contract between the county and Securus Technologies, the company that operates the jail phone service. The contract requires Securus to pay 57.5 percent of the revenue from phone calls back to the county. Last year that netted the county government more than $3.6 million. In the last three years under this contract the county has pulled in about $12 million from inmates making calls out of the county jail, according to numbers supplied by the county. It’s like the ultimate command economy. The county locks up the inmate. In order to communicate with family and arrange their defense, the inmate has to use the phones. Cook County has given an exclusive contract to Securus, which sets the phone rates and prohibits any competition, and then the county gets more than half of the revenue generated.