Not only are we paying for the free phones and usage, we are paying for advertising to inform these looters on how to get their free phone. I would like to see a law that anyone using a cell phone in the commission of a felony, be denied a cell phone account until they are off probation.
Think of their cell phones as personal tracking devices that they are required by law to carry at all times. Not only is their cell location silently and remotely recorded, newer phones report precise coordinates. With slight software modification the phones can take motion activated photos and record offline conversations and upload them periodically for image and speech recognition analysis, not to mention the blabber mouths divulge everything about themselves when they're on the phone.
As work automation increases, the left side of the bell curve is increasingly becoming unemployable. There is little they can do that a robot won't do faster, cheaper, better. What we're witnessing is the permanent transformation of huge numbers of people into human zoo animals. That's the future. Tracking devices will be used for determining which zoo animals are free range and which are kept in cages.