Mandatory Arbitration and Prison Services Contracts: How Private Companies Exploit the Incarcerated and Consumers to Reject Meaningful Accountability

Abstract

This Comment considers a previously unexamined, and particularly vile, consequence of the movement towards consumer arbitration clauses: their impact on incarcerated people and their families. Incarceration is physically, emotionally, and financially ruinous for both the incarcerated and for families who are routinely forced to subsidize their loved one’s incarceration through paying for things like phone calls and basic needs that prisons fail to meet. The burden on families has only increased as governments have contracted various aspects of correctional systems out to private companies that charge exorbitant prices for basic services, knowing full well that consumers have no choice but to comply if they want to provide for and stay connected to incarcerated loved ones. This system would be inhumane enough without the added element of forced arbitration. This Comment hopes to shine a light on how mandatory arbitration clauses make an already exploitative situation all the worse. Not only are families of the incarcerated charged outrageous and illegal prices to communicate with and protect their loved ones, but mandatory arbitration ensures that they have no real ability to hold responsible companies accountable.