Well, "profit center" is overstating the case, but my colleague Bill Whitford told me yesterday about his efforts to reduce the costs of telephone calls from Dane County inmates to their families. Under the current system, calls made from the jail are charged a $4.25 connection fee plus $.10 per minute for every minute. Bill claims that the hotel-like charges are a tax on some of the County's poorest residents. He also mentioned that prisoners are not allowed to bring their own toothbrushes to prison (for security reasons), but are charged an above-market price for toothbrushes sold within the prison. In response to Bill's efforts, Superintendent Robert Fyrst commented, "Here are people who committed crimes, they are in the jail, and we want to give them a dollar break on phone calls?" This story not only offers a nice metaphor for taxation generally (we are all inmates), but aptly illustrates the hubris of taxing authorities, who interpret the proposed reduction of an outrageous overcharge as "giving the taxpayers a break."

UPDATE: Bill lost his fight.

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