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17 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 3 (2020)
The Company Store and the Literally Captive Market: Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails

handle is hein.journals/hasrapo17 and id is 3 raw text is: The Company Store and the Literally Captive Market: Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails STEPHEN RAHER1 Abstract: The growth of public expense associated with mass incarceration has led many carceral systems to push certain costs onto the people who are under correctional supervision. In the case of prisons and jails, this frequently takes the form of charges and fees associated with telecommunications, food, basic supplies, and access to information. Operation of these fee-based businesses (referred to here as prison retail) is typically outsourced to a private firm. In recent years, the dominant prison retail companies have consolidated into a handful of companies, mostly owned by private equity firms. This paper explores the practices of prison retailers, and discusses potential consumer-law implications. After an overview of the prison-retail industry and a detailed discussion of unfair practices, the paper looks at some potential legal protections that may apply under current law. These protections, however, prove to be scattered and often illusory due to mandatory arbitration provisions and prohibitions on class adjudication. The paper therefore concludes with recommendations on a variety of steps that state, local, and federal governments can take to address the problems inherent in the current model. 1. The author is grateful to Peter Wagner and all the staff at Prison Policy Initiative for their support on this and many other projects. For feedback on early drafts, thanks to Lee Petro, Andy Blubaugh, and the participants at the Consumer Law Scholars Conference at Berkeley Law, particularly Creola Johnson, Jeff Sovern, Ted Mermin, Matthew Bruckner, Craig Cowie, Prentiss Cox, Daniel Schwarcz, Myriam Gilles, and Tammi Etheridge. For providing valuable insights about some of the specific practices in the industry, thanks to Art Longworth, Alex Friedmann, and Pam Clifton. All images (figures and tables) printed herein are created by the author or the author has permission to reprint images.

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