Pennsylvania prisons switching to ebooks
October 14, 2018 9:56 PM Subscribe
Prisons are switching to ebooks but that’s not a good thing. The "Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced that inmates would no longer be able to receive physical books from outside organizations or inmate’s families. Instead, the state’s prison system would be switching to ebooks. These will be available on tablets sold by prison telecommunications giant GTL."
I used to help send books to prisoners. It was a way to cultivate a connection with those inside, and to do something concrete and good. To, at a minimum, help alleviate suffering. This is a dark thing. Slightly dark for volunteers who will lose their connection to these folks. Infinitely more so for the prisoners, who we cannot stop hitting.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:56 PM on October 14, 2018 [30 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 11:56 PM on October 14, 2018 [30 favorites]
The knowledge that there are "giants" of the prison telecom industry -- not one, but two companies -- encapsulates the deep sickness of our society.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:13 AM on October 15, 2018 [60 favorites]
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:13 AM on October 15, 2018 [60 favorites]
Yeah, I'd really like to see those two companies reduced to a pair of quarter-sized, smoking grease-spots on the ground.
There is absolutely no excuse for their continued existence.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:34 AM on October 15, 2018 [18 favorites]
There is absolutely no excuse for their continued existence.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:34 AM on October 15, 2018 [18 favorites]
I also have sent books to prisoners, and honestly I think part of the value is not just the books but knowing someone cares enough to send books. A lot of the letters we used to get were heartbreaking - in the “a guy said if I send a letter here I could get books, so I would like these, but really anything and thank you” variety. Just the kind of “I don’t expect anything good, but if it’s real, wow would that be nice”.
Even if you favor the punitive outlook, if you deny books to prisoners, you narrow the possibilities for them to grow and amend their life. This doesn’t make any sense at all.
posted by corb at 3:14 AM on October 15, 2018 [55 favorites]
Even if you favor the punitive outlook, if you deny books to prisoners, you narrow the possibilities for them to grow and amend their life. This doesn’t make any sense at all.
posted by corb at 3:14 AM on October 15, 2018 [55 favorites]
This is absolute cruelty.
posted by yueliang at 3:15 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by yueliang at 3:15 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
What rationale, other than profit for a private company, to have emails cost 47 cents?
In 21st-century America, that's all the rationale that's required for all sorts of awful things. Lack of private profit is also the rationale for not doing all sorts of good things. The US is a theocracy dedicated to Mammon.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:17 AM on October 15, 2018 [33 favorites]
In 21st-century America, that's all the rationale that's required for all sorts of awful things. Lack of private profit is also the rationale for not doing all sorts of good things. The US is a theocracy dedicated to Mammon.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:17 AM on October 15, 2018 [33 favorites]
I suppose this also cuts out library requests, too. I had a brief stint in a Texas library Interlibrary Loan office, and I mostly packed boxes of books for prisoners at for-profit prisons.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:26 AM on October 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:26 AM on October 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
"for-profit prisons"
That really about says it all at the root of what's heartlessly fucked up and broken in the soul of the United States.
posted by nikaspark at 5:02 AM on October 15, 2018 [28 favorites]
That really about says it all at the root of what's heartlessly fucked up and broken in the soul of the United States.
posted by nikaspark at 5:02 AM on October 15, 2018 [28 favorites]
"Inmates are even charged for free books accessed via the online repository Project Gutenberg)"
posted by doctornemo at 5:07 AM on October 15, 2018 [33 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 5:07 AM on October 15, 2018 [33 favorites]
One of the reasons people convicted of crimes should regain their voting rights automatically after completing their sentences is that they can have a larger voice in criminal justice reform, including weighing in on travesties like this.
posted by TedW at 6:20 AM on October 15, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by TedW at 6:20 AM on October 15, 2018 [16 favorites]
There are no laws that say this needs to happen. The decisions are entirely administrative, and ultimately, whether or not to do this lands on the Democratic governor Tom Wolf. It is things like this that make marginalized people feel like there is no point to voting, since they are screwed by the system no matter who is in office. If Democrats want to take and truly hold power, they need to start recognizing the humanity of all the people in the state.
posted by rockindata at 6:21 AM on October 15, 2018 [17 favorites]
posted by rockindata at 6:21 AM on October 15, 2018 [17 favorites]
1. I have to assume a big part of this is that The Man can now review everything each prisoner reads, to identify those who are politically aware.
2. What about reading material not available as ebooks? It's all effectively censored.
posted by M-x shell at 6:30 AM on October 15, 2018 [12 favorites]
2. What about reading material not available as ebooks? It's all effectively censored.
posted by M-x shell at 6:30 AM on October 15, 2018 [12 favorites]
As online editions of newspapers are demonstrating, digital texts are also much easier to "stealth censor": remove offending passages, change verbiage, etc.
And as M-x shell points out above, digital metadata makes it much easier to transform prisoner reading habits into Big Data to calculate their Social Credit Score.
posted by Svejk at 6:36 AM on October 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
And as M-x shell points out above, digital metadata makes it much easier to transform prisoner reading habits into Big Data to calculate their Social Credit Score.
posted by Svejk at 6:36 AM on October 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
This is a shitty, inhuman policy. I've been writing to my reps about it. Our local books-to-prisoners project has a page up where they're posting letters that they've gotten from inmates about the new policy, and they say they're going to be using it to round up informational and practical resources to use in pushing back against the policy. Might be worth keeping an eye on.
posted by Stacey at 6:44 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 6:44 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
[also unavailable on the proprietary ebook system is] Michelle Alexander’s blockbuster book about the US criminal justice system, The New Jim Crow (which is banned by prison authorities around the country).
The linked article notes that in Texas in addition to The New Jim Crow being banned, The Color Purple is banned. But Mein Kampf—written by Adolf Hitler while in prison about the illegitimacy and destined doom of the state which was imprisoning him, in part because it was supposedly backed by a Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy—is available.
A noteworthy early exception (link to a 1938 Google Books legal text which Pennsylvania prisoners probably can't view...) to the right of free speech in the US was that it was illegal to teach slaves to read or to circulate written material which could lead to a slave insurrection, and often was a capital crime:
Thus Virginia, as early as 1798 and again in 1817, punished with death free persons inciting rebellion, and in 1832 prohibited the circulation of literature by free Negroes or slaves advising rebellion, under penalty of flogging for a first offense and death for a second.posted by XMLicious at 6:48 AM on October 15, 2018 [18 favorites]
...
Alabama in 1812 imposed the death penalty on free persons inciting insurrection, and applied the same penalty in 1832 to the publishing or distributing of literature tending to arouse insurrection.
I wish articles like this included information like, who has the power to overturn this decision? To whom do we effectively channel our displeasure?
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:01 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:01 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
That is sick! I think I know what's behind this, and it has nothing to do with contraband. And if I wrote what I think, everyone would tell me I'm beating a dead horse or I'm paranoid.
The prison system in this country is broken, sick. It's time we tore it down and started again.
posted by james33 at 7:09 AM on October 15, 2018
The prison system in this country is broken, sick. It's time we tore it down and started again.
posted by james33 at 7:09 AM on October 15, 2018
SecretAgentSockpuppet - Well in this specific instance you can reach the leadership of the PA Dept of Corrections through here. Ultimately the buck stops at the Governor's desk. That's Tom Wolf (D). His name might be familiar because his opponent in this year's election was quoted in the news last week about wanting to stomp on his face with golf spikes. Wolf has a fairly healthy lead in the polls, and should absolutely be getting pressure from the left on criminal justice reform. He touts his commitment to reform on his campaign page.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:12 AM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 7:12 AM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
Yup, Wolf is a semi-reasonable guy with a decent lead, and a good person to write to.
If one is in PA, one could perhaps write to one's state reps to apply pressure to Wolf as well, but personally, I'm just staring at a countdown clock waiting for my lame-duck House rep, who never met a criminal justice system he didn't like, to get replaced by the progressive young woman who booted him out in the primaries. She, I'm confident, is on the right side of this one and will apply whatever pressure a brand-new rep can, but it sure would be great if this shitty policy could get overturned before then.
posted by Stacey at 7:17 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
If one is in PA, one could perhaps write to one's state reps to apply pressure to Wolf as well, but personally, I'm just staring at a countdown clock waiting for my lame-duck House rep, who never met a criminal justice system he didn't like, to get replaced by the progressive young woman who booted him out in the primaries. She, I'm confident, is on the right side of this one and will apply whatever pressure a brand-new rep can, but it sure would be great if this shitty policy could get overturned before then.
posted by Stacey at 7:17 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
It was brought to my attention on Twitter that the only Koran available on this ebook platform is an 1860 translation where
I get that it's a lot to ask that the people running the prisons care about prisoners as human beings rather than a potential source of profit, but come on.
posted by Jeanne at 7:21 AM on October 15, 2018 [14 favorites]
In the preface, Rodwell, a clergyman in the Church of England, approvingly quotes a statement that says Muhammad was “criminal” in “imposing a false religion in mankind”.Because that's the one that's on Gutenberg. And you still have to pay $3 for it. (You can get the same book in print, used, from Amazon for $2.)
I get that it's a lot to ask that the people running the prisons care about prisoners as human beings rather than a potential source of profit, but come on.
posted by Jeanne at 7:21 AM on October 15, 2018 [14 favorites]
I have occasionally wondered if this sort of thing might not be an occasion for strategic intervention by a nonprofit.
Create and fund a nonprofit entity to supply prison services like this, outbid the for-profit bastards, and run everything at cost.
(not to say that any of the above would be easy, mind)
posted by aramaic at 8:33 AM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
Create and fund a nonprofit entity to supply prison services like this, outbid the for-profit bastards, and run everything at cost.
(not to say that any of the above would be easy, mind)
posted by aramaic at 8:33 AM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
One of the reasons people convicted of crimes should regain their voting rights automatically after completing their sentences is that they can have a larger voice in criminal justice reform, including weighing in on travesties like this.
Maybe once someone is disenfranchised, they should also be freed from having to pay taxes; otherwise what you’ve got there is taxation without representation. Seems to me you guys fought a war about that one time.
Of course, I live in the fully-automated gay communist space utopia of Canada where even current felons get to vote (in the riding they lived in prior to incarceration) so what do I know?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:50 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
Maybe once someone is disenfranchised, they should also be freed from having to pay taxes; otherwise what you’ve got there is taxation without representation. Seems to me you guys fought a war about that one time.
Of course, I live in the fully-automated gay communist space utopia of Canada where even current felons get to vote (in the riding they lived in prior to incarceration) so what do I know?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:50 AM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
Inmates at California prisons have to pay a $5 copay for a non-emergent doctor's appointment. Which sounds fair, since most of us have a copay as well, but we make a lot more than 13 cents an hour; a doctor's appointment costs almost 40 hours of work.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:11 AM on October 15, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by elsietheeel at 9:11 AM on October 15, 2018 [10 favorites]
Fwiw, GTL is a private company, which makes it hard to organize divestment campaigns. That said, their board composition is public... So public shaming is some kind of recourse.
They also get prisons they work with to sign monopoly agreements, insulating them from competition from more honest companies.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:17 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
They also get prisons they work with to sign monopoly agreements, insulating them from competition from more honest companies.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:17 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
When they tried to do this in NY there was enough backlash that they rescinded the decision. I think the original plan there was that inmates would still be buying physical books, though, but only from approved vendors (now they can receive books from the outside again).
posted by atoxyl at 9:45 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 9:45 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
I get that prisons aren't supposed to be fun and all, but this shit just makes my skin crawl. The goal of incarceration is to pay a debt to society and become rehabilitated. It is NOT to line the pockets of the greedy, inhuman assholes who are soulless enough to ruthlessly exploit prisoners. Add in the absolutely abhorrent and unfair rates of incarceration for minorities, and jesus h. christ if you can't see that this is A Problem then you don't deserve to be calling yourself a decent member of society.
posted by caution live frogs at 9:47 AM on October 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by caution live frogs at 9:47 AM on October 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
aramaic, the issue with starting up a non profit to compete with the private prison services companies, is that they ALL kick a percentage of their earnings BACK to the prison/department of corrections/jail/sheriff's department. All these moves are justified for a couple of reasons 1. cut back on contraband (I spent 5 years in prison, much of the contraband comes in through the guards) and 2. decrease/defray the cost of running the prison. Many states force prisoners to work either running the prison (cooking, cleaning) or doing prison industrial jobs (working on a farm that sells the produce to food distributors, building furniture used to supply state offices) and they're paid tiny amounts of money for this ($.30-.40/hour in VA, $1/hr in MA), which 99% of them immediately turn around and spend on commissary, or the phone, or ordering books. This allows the prison to recoup all that money, as well as further bilk the friends and family of the prisoners who supply the majority of the money a prisoner needs to eat decently, keep in contact via phone/mail and not go crazy (by reading books). The privatization of phones and commissary happened a long time ago, and now the for profit prison industry is moving into mail and entertainment, by pushing prisons to force inmates to use tablets to write mail, read books, and listen to music and banning any other way of doing these things, all the while kicking back money to the DOC.
posted by youthenrage at 10:16 AM on October 15, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by youthenrage at 10:16 AM on October 15, 2018 [10 favorites]
Another thing Pennsylvania just did is that you actually have to send all mail to prisoners through a sorting system in Florida. I don't know what purpose this serves, perhaps gutting a local job in Pennsylvania for cost cutting purposes? But it makes communications with incarcerated people a lot slower.
I recently started corresponding with a few prisoners. It's pretty rewarding and good practice with letter writing. I'm getting to know some interesting people. There are several websites that you can use to connect with prisoners (these are for-profit websites but seem to be small independent operations soI felt ok using them), and I also have one pen pal, the guy in Pennsylvania, I connected with via Solitary Watch, which provides the return address if that feels more comfortable for you. (I got a PO box for the other folks I'm writing to).
posted by latkes at 10:20 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
I recently started corresponding with a few prisoners. It's pretty rewarding and good practice with letter writing. I'm getting to know some interesting people. There are several websites that you can use to connect with prisoners (these are for-profit websites but seem to be small independent operations soI felt ok using them), and I also have one pen pal, the guy in Pennsylvania, I connected with via Solitary Watch, which provides the return address if that feels more comfortable for you. (I got a PO box for the other folks I'm writing to).
posted by latkes at 10:20 AM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
> The goal of incarceration is to pay a debt to society and become rehabilitated. It is NOT to line the pockets of the greedy, inhuman assholes who are soulless enough to ruthlessly exploit prisoners.
So a good norm to try to uphold is to never treat normative claims as if they were factual claims. You are here making a normative claim — you are saying that prisons should be places for rehabilitation and societal debt-paying, and should not be a scam wherein an underclass is locked up and then shaken down for all the money and labor the people running the scam can get out of them.
By using “is” instead of “should,” you are implying first that the sheer force of normative preferences should be useful for changing the extant system. More dangerously, though, you are implying that the normative model of relatively benign imprisonment isn’t just something that should exist, but is in fact something that can exist. This assumes facts not in evidence.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:46 AM on October 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
So a good norm to try to uphold is to never treat normative claims as if they were factual claims. You are here making a normative claim — you are saying that prisons should be places for rehabilitation and societal debt-paying, and should not be a scam wherein an underclass is locked up and then shaken down for all the money and labor the people running the scam can get out of them.
By using “is” instead of “should,” you are implying first that the sheer force of normative preferences should be useful for changing the extant system. More dangerously, though, you are implying that the normative model of relatively benign imprisonment isn’t just something that should exist, but is in fact something that can exist. This assumes facts not in evidence.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:46 AM on October 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
So I counter your claim about what prisons should be with a counterclaim about what is to be done about prisons. Specifically, I claim that prisons should be busted open by whatever means necessary, their guards disarmed and otherwise neutralized, and that the radicalized former prisoners should be encouraged to organize via democratic means to continue to liberate territory, government facilities, factories, etc. until such time as America and the world are entirely free.
A necessary prerequisite to this solution to the problem of imprisonment is the political education of prisoners, which is necessary for them both to recognize their own situation and to develop organizational strategies and/or military tactics to change that situation.
And that’s why the slavers running the American prison system don’t want their victims to have access to books, much like how the slavers who ran the chattel slavery system that stood as a precursor to modern prison slavery didn’t want their victims to learn how to read.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:51 AM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
A necessary prerequisite to this solution to the problem of imprisonment is the political education of prisoners, which is necessary for them both to recognize their own situation and to develop organizational strategies and/or military tactics to change that situation.
And that’s why the slavers running the American prison system don’t want their victims to have access to books, much like how the slavers who ran the chattel slavery system that stood as a precursor to modern prison slavery didn’t want their victims to learn how to read.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:51 AM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
I had a family friend, who sadly passed away a few years ago, who worked in the PA Department of Corrections, and I wonder what he would have to say about this. Nothing good, I suspect.
The times I talked to him about his job, he never failed to remark that over the course of his career—30-odd years—the job had changed almost unrecognizably. When he had gotten involved in the 70s as a parole officer, it was still seen as something of a social services job. Yeah, there was a sort of supervisory/parental aspect to it, and the expectation that you'd be dealing with some fairly rough customers, but the overall goal was to help people get their shit together and not end up back in prison. But over the course of his career, it became more and more of a law enforcement position, and the goal started to become more about 'catching' people and sending them back to prison. Probably some level of rose-colored-glasses skepticism is warranted, but I've heard other people say similar things about various aspects of the criminal justice system during the same period—there's definitely a common thread there. Somewhere, the purpose shifted: from rehabilitation to defensive incarceration.
He pointed me towards the 1974 "Martinson Report" (written, somewhat unexpectedly, by a self-described Socialist and anti-segregationist Freedom Rider) as the turning point in retrospect. I assume that, as with most major social failures, there are probably a confluence of other factors at work.
I'm in no way suggesting that it's not worth applying pressure to specific instances of inhumane treatment or abuse, which this ebook thing certainly qualifies as. But longer term, I think we need to understand what happened, if we want a broader shift back towards rehabilitative approaches.
It seems so nonsensically perverse that during a period when society has become safer, and crime less frequent, by virtually every measure, we've simultaneously developed harder and harder attitudes in dealing with the remaining criminals we do have.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:58 AM on October 15, 2018 [7 favorites]
The times I talked to him about his job, he never failed to remark that over the course of his career—30-odd years—the job had changed almost unrecognizably. When he had gotten involved in the 70s as a parole officer, it was still seen as something of a social services job. Yeah, there was a sort of supervisory/parental aspect to it, and the expectation that you'd be dealing with some fairly rough customers, but the overall goal was to help people get their shit together and not end up back in prison. But over the course of his career, it became more and more of a law enforcement position, and the goal started to become more about 'catching' people and sending them back to prison. Probably some level of rose-colored-glasses skepticism is warranted, but I've heard other people say similar things about various aspects of the criminal justice system during the same period—there's definitely a common thread there. Somewhere, the purpose shifted: from rehabilitation to defensive incarceration.
He pointed me towards the 1974 "Martinson Report" (written, somewhat unexpectedly, by a self-described Socialist and anti-segregationist Freedom Rider) as the turning point in retrospect. I assume that, as with most major social failures, there are probably a confluence of other factors at work.
I'm in no way suggesting that it's not worth applying pressure to specific instances of inhumane treatment or abuse, which this ebook thing certainly qualifies as. But longer term, I think we need to understand what happened, if we want a broader shift back towards rehabilitative approaches.
It seems so nonsensically perverse that during a period when society has become safer, and crime less frequent, by virtually every measure, we've simultaneously developed harder and harder attitudes in dealing with the remaining criminals we do have.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:58 AM on October 15, 2018 [7 favorites]
> It seems so nonsensically perverse that during a period when society has become safer, and crime less frequent, by virtually every measure, we've simultaneously developed harder and harder attitudes in dealing with the remaining criminals we do have.
Perhaps the primary function of the prison system has nothing to do with crime or criminals and instead is about providing cheap labor to companies that use prison labor, and driving down the cost of labor more generally even for employers who do not themselves directly use slave workers.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 12:04 PM on October 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
Perhaps the primary function of the prison system has nothing to do with crime or criminals and instead is about providing cheap labor to companies that use prison labor, and driving down the cost of labor more generally even for employers who do not themselves directly use slave workers.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 12:04 PM on October 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
we've simultaneously developed harder and harder attitudes in dealing with the remaining criminals we do have.
There is an American tendency which cuts across party lines to react far more strongly when somebody receives too light a sentence than to too harsh of one: a judge or prosecutor's job is never seriously in danger from them being too "tough on crime". If an innocent person is put in jail for the majority of their life, there may be some grumbling, but if a guilty person gets one day fewer in prison than people think they deserve, that's when the pitchforks come out.
posted by Pyry at 12:25 PM on October 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
There is an American tendency which cuts across party lines to react far more strongly when somebody receives too light a sentence than to too harsh of one: a judge or prosecutor's job is never seriously in danger from them being too "tough on crime". If an innocent person is put in jail for the majority of their life, there may be some grumbling, but if a guilty person gets one day fewer in prison than people think they deserve, that's when the pitchforks come out.
posted by Pyry at 12:25 PM on October 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
The actual role of prison labor in the economy, in absolute terms, is quite modest.
Capitalism is making far more money off extortion like this than it is from prison labor. This is why I think focusing on the supposed "prison-industrial complex" is a bit of a misdirect.
posted by praemunire at 12:29 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Capitalism is making far more money off extortion like this than it is from prison labor. This is why I think focusing on the supposed "prison-industrial complex" is a bit of a misdirect.
posted by praemunire at 12:29 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Some GTL executive somewhere schemed for months or years to make this happen. There were executive off-sites, powerpoint decks, status meetings, and celebratory cakes at project milestones. To them, this is a huge win, and probably paid for a new summer house at minimum.
Imagine how miserable it must be to live a life like that.
posted by LiteOpera at 12:29 PM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
Imagine how miserable it must be to live a life like that.
posted by LiteOpera at 12:29 PM on October 15, 2018 [6 favorites]
> The actual role of prison labor in the economy, in absolute terms, is quite modest.
Even when you include the downward pressure on “market”-rate wages exerted by the presence of the slave labor option? If it’s possible to get clothing with “made in the usa” labels made by american slaves, the price of free american labor goes down.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 12:43 PM on October 15, 2018
Even when you include the downward pressure on “market”-rate wages exerted by the presence of the slave labor option? If it’s possible to get clothing with “made in the usa” labels made by american slaves, the price of free american labor goes down.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 12:43 PM on October 15, 2018
Keeping contraband out of prisons is necessary and very difficult. It is very hard to see how requiring that inmates only possess paperbacks wouldn't do the job, though. Run the paperback through the metal detector, flex it in your hands, riffle the pages, hold it by the covers and give it a good shake, done. If the book was only available in hardback, you could insist that it be sent with the cover removed, turning it into a paperback.
If you really wanted to crack down, you could insist that books only be sent through Amazon or Abebooks. I suppose that somewhere a fake bookstore might set itself up in order to smuggle contraband in to prisoners, but it is not an obvious scam and would be easy to catch just by keeping track of where books came from.
What is being done instead is to give a bunch of criminals with lots of time on their hands tablets that connect to the internet. That can go so wrong so many ways that it makes me dizzy to think about it.
posted by ckridge at 12:47 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
If you really wanted to crack down, you could insist that books only be sent through Amazon or Abebooks. I suppose that somewhere a fake bookstore might set itself up in order to smuggle contraband in to prisoners, but it is not an obvious scam and would be easy to catch just by keeping track of where books came from.
What is being done instead is to give a bunch of criminals with lots of time on their hands tablets that connect to the internet. That can go so wrong so many ways that it makes me dizzy to think about it.
posted by ckridge at 12:47 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
If the book was only available in hardback, you could insist that it be sent with the cover removed, turning it into a paperback.
I think the issue with hardback books is also that the cover can be made into a shiv. As in, people have done that.
If you really wanted to crack down, you could insist that books only be sent through Amazon or Abebooks.
I have heard of that being done in some prison systems - you cannot send books directly, and must instead order them for an inmate from Amazon. It's a reasonable solution to security issues, it seems to me.
posted by thelonius at 12:53 PM on October 15, 2018
I think the issue with hardback books is also that the cover can be made into a shiv. As in, people have done that.
If you really wanted to crack down, you could insist that books only be sent through Amazon or Abebooks.
I have heard of that being done in some prison systems - you cannot send books directly, and must instead order them for an inmate from Amazon. It's a reasonable solution to security issues, it seems to me.
posted by thelonius at 12:53 PM on October 15, 2018
Run the paperback through the metal detector, flex it in your hands, riffle the pages, hold it by the covers and give it a good shake, done. If the book was only available in hardback, you could insist that it be sent with the cover removed, turning it into a paperback.
Yeahhhhh...that book glue could be heroin. The sheets of paper could have been soaked in acid.
That's why a lot of prisons require books to be sent directly from the vendor. And why correspondence to inmates isn't allowed to have stickers or glitter glue and why even postage stamps are carefully inspected.
posted by elsietheeel at 1:01 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Yeahhhhh...that book glue could be heroin. The sheets of paper could have been soaked in acid.
That's why a lot of prisons require books to be sent directly from the vendor. And why correspondence to inmates isn't allowed to have stickers or glitter glue and why even postage stamps are carefully inspected.
posted by elsietheeel at 1:01 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Even when you include the downward pressure on “market”-rate wages exerted by the presence of the slave labor option? If it’s possible to get clothing with “made in the usa” labels made by american slaves, the price of free american labor goes down.
Yes, because there's just not that much of it. The main use of prison labor is to replace labor within the prison itself, which is its own problem--but that only places downward pressure on the wages of DOC employees, whom I am not excessively worried about.
Whereas some variation of this basic bullshit scheme of charging inmates exorbitant amounts for basic services, usually by installing some high-priced, low-customer service middleman company, is practically everywhere.
posted by praemunire at 1:13 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Yes, because there's just not that much of it. The main use of prison labor is to replace labor within the prison itself, which is its own problem--but that only places downward pressure on the wages of DOC employees, whom I am not excessively worried about.
Whereas some variation of this basic bullshit scheme of charging inmates exorbitant amounts for basic services, usually by installing some high-priced, low-customer service middleman company, is practically everywhere.
posted by praemunire at 1:13 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Even when you include the downward pressure on “market”-rate wages exerted by the presence of the slave labor option?
I'm having trouble even finding an analysis that investigates that (most analyses of prison industry programs focus on stuff like recidivism rates and success of reentry); the only one I can find is this paper from 2002 (fulltext PDF—thanks Princeton), and it estimates an upper bound of 5% decrease in salary due to increased labor supply, only for non-highschool-diploma workers, and only if all adult prisoners were put to work and their labor auctioned to private industry to compete directly with non-prisoner labor. Current rates aren't close to that level of participation, and at least in most places I'm aware of, prison-made goods aren't sold on the open market so the effect is reduced.
I'm sure there's somebody out there very happy with any reduction in wages of highschool dropouts because of the effect it has on their bottom line, but as a dominant driver of the current mass incarceration system it doesn't seem like there's nearly enough companies or money at stake to be driving things. And prison populations grew in the 1990s much faster than prison industry programs; the tail would really have to be wagging the dog for it to be causative.
For clarity, I'm not saying that specific companies that benefit from the current scheme aren't engaged in lobbying to keep things the way they are. But as a causative explanation for a systemic trend over multiple decades, which seems to have happened across the country and with widespread public support (e.g. for the abolition of parole in many states; for mandatory drug-crime minimums; for gang statutes), it doesn't seem likely to be the crux of the issue. Personally and perhaps more philosophically, I am skeptical because I think it lets the public off the hook—it's a pleasant sort of conspiracy theory, one that I'd like to believe, in that it puts the fault on some mysterious monocle-wearing industrialists somewhere, but that runs counter to my experience that most great social evils are perpetuated by a great mass of people, each doing their banal part.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:42 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'm having trouble even finding an analysis that investigates that (most analyses of prison industry programs focus on stuff like recidivism rates and success of reentry); the only one I can find is this paper from 2002 (fulltext PDF—thanks Princeton), and it estimates an upper bound of 5% decrease in salary due to increased labor supply, only for non-highschool-diploma workers, and only if all adult prisoners were put to work and their labor auctioned to private industry to compete directly with non-prisoner labor. Current rates aren't close to that level of participation, and at least in most places I'm aware of, prison-made goods aren't sold on the open market so the effect is reduced.
I'm sure there's somebody out there very happy with any reduction in wages of highschool dropouts because of the effect it has on their bottom line, but as a dominant driver of the current mass incarceration system it doesn't seem like there's nearly enough companies or money at stake to be driving things. And prison populations grew in the 1990s much faster than prison industry programs; the tail would really have to be wagging the dog for it to be causative.
For clarity, I'm not saying that specific companies that benefit from the current scheme aren't engaged in lobbying to keep things the way they are. But as a causative explanation for a systemic trend over multiple decades, which seems to have happened across the country and with widespread public support (e.g. for the abolition of parole in many states; for mandatory drug-crime minimums; for gang statutes), it doesn't seem likely to be the crux of the issue. Personally and perhaps more philosophically, I am skeptical because I think it lets the public off the hook—it's a pleasant sort of conspiracy theory, one that I'd like to believe, in that it puts the fault on some mysterious monocle-wearing industrialists somewhere, but that runs counter to my experience that most great social evils are perpetuated by a great mass of people, each doing their banal part.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:42 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
If you really wanted to crack down, you could insist that books only be sent through Amazon or Abebooks.
I've sent books to a friend incarcerated in California, the only way to send books is direct from the publisher.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:08 PM on October 15, 2018
I've sent books to a friend incarcerated in California, the only way to send books is direct from the publisher.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:08 PM on October 15, 2018
Perhaps the primary function of the prison system has nothing to do with crime or criminals and instead is about providing cheap labor to companies that use prison labor, and driving down the cost of labor more generally even for employers who do not themselves directly use slave workers.
I don't know how much of it is the labor angle so much as the pervasive cultural belief in punitive justice. I think it's easy to take it for granted that this is just what justice is, that it's perfectly logical and impartial and not culturally bound. We have a system of justice that applies the same punishment for many different kinds of crimes, because the emphasis here is on the punishment, rather than the direct effects of someone's actions. The state takes on the role of plaintiff, so the emphasis is more on exacting punishment than on mitigating the effects to the people most directly affected by the crime. It is often sufficient that we all know the wrongdoer will be punished.
African cattle farmers (I want to say Zambia, but I can't 100% recall offhand) historically dealt with cattle rustlers by demanding they either get their cattle back, or be reimbursed for the loss of their cattle; justice in the eyes of the farmers was in the return of their livelihoods. When that area was colonized, cattle rustling became a crime punishable by prison. The rustler was punished for their crime, but the cattle farmer still had to cope with the loss of their cattle, whereas before the loss of cattle had been the important part. That's not to exoticize "traditional African" justice as more wise or better, but in this case it certainly served the plaintiffs better than the purely punitive system.
I'm not saying our justice system is wrong necessarily, and a lot of other models of justice depend on different kinds of communities and societies than we have. It's just worth thinking about exactly why we think it's fair to lock people in prison for a variety of crimes ranging from drug offenses to violent crimes to economic offenses and beyond. A lot of people justify human misery out of the pervasive cultural belief that crime naturally results in a loss of bodily and mental autonomy. That's just fair, right? You do the crime, you do the time, largely irrespective of what the crime actually was. "They deserve to rot in prison for a long time." Why give them books, why make things easier for people, if the whole point is that they suffer for what they have done? Extracting their labor is only part of it.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:42 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I don't know how much of it is the labor angle so much as the pervasive cultural belief in punitive justice. I think it's easy to take it for granted that this is just what justice is, that it's perfectly logical and impartial and not culturally bound. We have a system of justice that applies the same punishment for many different kinds of crimes, because the emphasis here is on the punishment, rather than the direct effects of someone's actions. The state takes on the role of plaintiff, so the emphasis is more on exacting punishment than on mitigating the effects to the people most directly affected by the crime. It is often sufficient that we all know the wrongdoer will be punished.
African cattle farmers (I want to say Zambia, but I can't 100% recall offhand) historically dealt with cattle rustlers by demanding they either get their cattle back, or be reimbursed for the loss of their cattle; justice in the eyes of the farmers was in the return of their livelihoods. When that area was colonized, cattle rustling became a crime punishable by prison. The rustler was punished for their crime, but the cattle farmer still had to cope with the loss of their cattle, whereas before the loss of cattle had been the important part. That's not to exoticize "traditional African" justice as more wise or better, but in this case it certainly served the plaintiffs better than the purely punitive system.
I'm not saying our justice system is wrong necessarily, and a lot of other models of justice depend on different kinds of communities and societies than we have. It's just worth thinking about exactly why we think it's fair to lock people in prison for a variety of crimes ranging from drug offenses to violent crimes to economic offenses and beyond. A lot of people justify human misery out of the pervasive cultural belief that crime naturally results in a loss of bodily and mental autonomy. That's just fair, right? You do the crime, you do the time, largely irrespective of what the crime actually was. "They deserve to rot in prison for a long time." Why give them books, why make things easier for people, if the whole point is that they suffer for what they have done? Extracting their labor is only part of it.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:42 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Perhaps the primary function of the prison system has nothing to do with crime or criminals and instead is about providing cheap labor to companies that use prison labor, and driving down the cost of labor more generally even for employers who do not themselves directly use slave workers.
Don't forget about the systematic disenfranchisement and economic/educatuonal exclusion of people of color, and the destabilization of POC families! Plenty of powerful folks dig those aspects too!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:47 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Don't forget about the systematic disenfranchisement and economic/educatuonal exclusion of people of color, and the destabilization of POC families! Plenty of powerful folks dig those aspects too!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:47 PM on October 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
(To-do: design a system for embedding arbitrary text in public domain books to send to prisoners via Amazon's print on demand services.)
posted by kaibutsu at 2:55 PM on October 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 2:55 PM on October 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
Imagine Kevin Mitnick's first day of incarceraton and they hand him a networked device...
posted by Fupped Duck at 3:39 PM on October 15, 2018
posted by Fupped Duck at 3:39 PM on October 15, 2018
The primary purpose of prison is open to interpretation, but the primary impacts are disenfranchising poor people and African American people, economically repressing African American communities, controlling and limiting black people's freedom of movement, action and general body autonomy, and basically amplifying existing race and class based inequalities.
What is the problem we want to solve? Is prison solving it?
posted by latkes at 3:46 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
What is the problem we want to solve? Is prison solving it?
posted by latkes at 3:46 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
For low security prisons there is just no valid rationale for limiting book access. For high security prisons I suppose you can argue that sending paperbacks only straight from vendors could be justified (even though I disagree with that policy). Never should a sole contractor or vendor be allowed for fairly obvious economics reasons. The fact that there are radically different policies on books in different prisons pretty well demonstrates this is not a valid security concern.
posted by latkes at 3:49 PM on October 15, 2018
posted by latkes at 3:49 PM on October 15, 2018
Low security prisons still have contraband drug problems.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:32 PM on October 15, 2018
posted by elsietheeel at 4:32 PM on October 15, 2018
What is the problem we want to solve?
How can we extract as much wealth from the general population as possible and hand it to the shareholders of corporations?
Is prison solving it?
Apparently so.
posted by Grangousier at 4:43 PM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
How can we extract as much wealth from the general population as possible and hand it to the shareholders of corporations?
Is prison solving it?
Apparently so.
posted by Grangousier at 4:43 PM on October 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
And trust me, I had to debate long and hard with myself before I took a job in the prison industrial complex, but once you're in it the decisions they make that seem fucking ridiculous on the outside make a lot of sense when you're working inside.
Heroin on the back of a fucking postage stamp? It sounds absurd, but it happens. Contraband hidden inside an innocuous-looking book? Absolutely.
And while I would normally say "Fuck it, if I were in prison I'd want to do a shit-ton of drugs too", you have to consider the effort that it takes from everyone else if an inmate/patient overdoses. Or think about the long term effects of contraband drug/alcohol use. We just had 16 bottles of hand sanitizer go missing this weekend. Sure, the inmates who took it probably had a grand ol' time (comparatively), but the long-term effects of isopropanol consumption are harsh and a lot worse than EtOH (even if it's pruno).
End stage liver disease is not a nice way to die, especially not in prison. Overdosing on bad heroin en route to an ER from prison is not a nice way to die. Not to mention all of the nurses and doctors and EMTs who worked their asses off to get you from your housing block to the ER.
So yeah. Books are a valid security concern. But they're also another way of nickel and diming every single incarcerated person. Last month I got a complaint from an inmate who hadn't got his paycheck from the previous month. He makes 13 cents an hour. His total paycheck was about $20. Half of that was taken for restitution. And it broke my damn heart to read that. We need to pay inmates a decent wage (considering room and board) and find a better way for them to access books, education, and self-improvement/rehabilitation programming.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:45 PM on October 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
Heroin on the back of a fucking postage stamp? It sounds absurd, but it happens. Contraband hidden inside an innocuous-looking book? Absolutely.
And while I would normally say "Fuck it, if I were in prison I'd want to do a shit-ton of drugs too", you have to consider the effort that it takes from everyone else if an inmate/patient overdoses. Or think about the long term effects of contraband drug/alcohol use. We just had 16 bottles of hand sanitizer go missing this weekend. Sure, the inmates who took it probably had a grand ol' time (comparatively), but the long-term effects of isopropanol consumption are harsh and a lot worse than EtOH (even if it's pruno).
End stage liver disease is not a nice way to die, especially not in prison. Overdosing on bad heroin en route to an ER from prison is not a nice way to die. Not to mention all of the nurses and doctors and EMTs who worked their asses off to get you from your housing block to the ER.
So yeah. Books are a valid security concern. But they're also another way of nickel and diming every single incarcerated person. Last month I got a complaint from an inmate who hadn't got his paycheck from the previous month. He makes 13 cents an hour. His total paycheck was about $20. Half of that was taken for restitution. And it broke my damn heart to read that. We need to pay inmates a decent wage (considering room and board) and find a better way for them to access books, education, and self-improvement/rehabilitation programming.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:45 PM on October 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
Here's how I'd be ok with this:
- Every single ebook available from every library in the country and in the public domain available free of charge on these tablets
- Every prisoner provided use of one of these tablets free of charge
- Each of these tablets fitted with an open-source operating system and volunteer programs for programmers to teach prisoners how to hack them, call it job skills if you want
- fuck it, free Netflix too, because being cut off from the real world is punishment enough and the penchant of prison guards for petty punishment needs to be abated. Solitary should be a chance to binge.
If not that, fuck off.
posted by saysthis at 4:54 PM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
- Every single ebook available from every library in the country and in the public domain available free of charge on these tablets
- Every prisoner provided use of one of these tablets free of charge
- Each of these tablets fitted with an open-source operating system and volunteer programs for programmers to teach prisoners how to hack them, call it job skills if you want
- fuck it, free Netflix too, because being cut off from the real world is punishment enough and the penchant of prison guards for petty punishment needs to be abated. Solitary should be a chance to binge.
If not that, fuck off.
posted by saysthis at 4:54 PM on October 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
And, of course, every single book a prisoner might want is available on ebooks, including any and every textbook.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:27 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 5:27 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
The sheets of paper could have been soaked in acid.
I can't imagine tripping on acid in jail, but I hear people do it. I couldn't handle being in a grocery store.
posted by thelonius at 6:05 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I can't imagine tripping on acid in jail, but I hear people do it. I couldn't handle being in a grocery store.
posted by thelonius at 6:05 PM on October 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
According to Casey Hardison, it's far preferable to being in prison.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:55 PM on October 15, 2018
posted by elsietheeel at 6:55 PM on October 15, 2018
From the California requirements: There is no limit per quarter on book shipments; the only restriction is that prisoners may have no more than 10 books in their possession at any one time.
So... you could make a collection of several public domain works, combine them into one book through Amazon's self-publishing features, and ship a copy of that. Title it "Classic Classics Vol 1" or something like that; make a whole set of them. Hire someone to design a nice-looking cover that can be adapted to a series (something where you can just change the color every volume) so it raises no red flags on sight.
(Also: Finally, a use for published collections of Wikipedia files.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:38 PM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
So... you could make a collection of several public domain works, combine them into one book through Amazon's self-publishing features, and ship a copy of that. Title it "Classic Classics Vol 1" or something like that; make a whole set of them. Hire someone to design a nice-looking cover that can be adapted to a series (something where you can just change the color every volume) so it raises no red flags on sight.
(Also: Finally, a use for published collections of Wikipedia files.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:38 PM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Got this note in response to my email about this issue.
Thank you for reaching out the DOC regarding your concerns with the new book policies.
The DOC Secretary John Wetzel announced the immediate lockdown of all state correctional institutions on August 29, 2018 because of reports of multiple inmates and staff members being sickened by unknown dangerous substances. From May 2018 to September 2018 33 inmates and 60 staff members experienced side effects from dangerous unknown substance exposures. The statewide lockdown was lifted on September 10, 2018, and the DOC is enacting new policies to protect staff, inmates, volunteers and everyone who visit all DOC facilities from future dangerous substance exposures.
These new policies focus on procedures with Mail, Legal Mail, Visits, Staff, Books/Publications, Drones, and New Commits. Unfortunately, there has been inaccurate information circulating about the new policies, specifically with books. Books are not banned, and an inmate is not required to purchase a tablet in order to have access to literature. In fact, the new policies will provide more opportunities for inmates to access books. For example:
• Our libraries continue to provide thousands of books and will continue to expand based on requests of inmates.
• We have added the opportunity for inmates who do own tablets to have access to over 8500 books, with the intent to expand the selection based on inmate input.
• The availability of books to purchase will be basically unlimited. Because inmates do not have access to the Internet, they are limited to purchasing books that are available through a catalog. They are also locked into the price offered in that catalog. Through the DOC book request system, inmates can request any book and we will locate that book – at the lowest price. We are not adding any fees or shipping costs.
• Loved ones will also have the ability to order any book at the lowest possible cost and have it shipped to their loved one. There will be no fees or hidden costs.
• We are developing a policy that will accommodate donated books. We have NOT banned donated books. We are working on policy to accommodate free books for inmates. In fact, we will work with inmates and seek out specific genres.
• We are working with religious organizations, correspondence courses and other special interest groups who provide literature, workbooks and reading material to inmates. These items will not be banned.
• Current magazine and periodical subscriptions continue. New subscriptions will be requested through DOC. Inmates and loved ones will not incur additional costs.
These policies actually increase access and we are determined allow inmate to order books at the lower price possible. Additionally, following a 60-90 day transition period, a policy will be in place for donated books. For more information regarding other new procedures you can go to https://www.cor.pa.gov/Initiatives/Pages/FAQ-New-Procedures.aspx.
The DOC understands access to literature and education is an integral component to healthy rehabilitation and through these new policies it is our goal to provide inmates with even more reading material than the ever had before. The DOC also understands support from the public is another important facet to healthy rehabilitation. We thank you for being passionate about this topic, and we appreciate your continued support for the incarcerated class here in Pennsylvania.
If you have any other questions or concerns please reach out to the DOC again.
posted by aetg at 3:53 PM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thank you for reaching out the DOC regarding your concerns with the new book policies.
The DOC Secretary John Wetzel announced the immediate lockdown of all state correctional institutions on August 29, 2018 because of reports of multiple inmates and staff members being sickened by unknown dangerous substances. From May 2018 to September 2018 33 inmates and 60 staff members experienced side effects from dangerous unknown substance exposures. The statewide lockdown was lifted on September 10, 2018, and the DOC is enacting new policies to protect staff, inmates, volunteers and everyone who visit all DOC facilities from future dangerous substance exposures.
These new policies focus on procedures with Mail, Legal Mail, Visits, Staff, Books/Publications, Drones, and New Commits. Unfortunately, there has been inaccurate information circulating about the new policies, specifically with books. Books are not banned, and an inmate is not required to purchase a tablet in order to have access to literature. In fact, the new policies will provide more opportunities for inmates to access books. For example:
• Our libraries continue to provide thousands of books and will continue to expand based on requests of inmates.
• We have added the opportunity for inmates who do own tablets to have access to over 8500 books, with the intent to expand the selection based on inmate input.
• The availability of books to purchase will be basically unlimited. Because inmates do not have access to the Internet, they are limited to purchasing books that are available through a catalog. They are also locked into the price offered in that catalog. Through the DOC book request system, inmates can request any book and we will locate that book – at the lowest price. We are not adding any fees or shipping costs.
• Loved ones will also have the ability to order any book at the lowest possible cost and have it shipped to their loved one. There will be no fees or hidden costs.
• We are developing a policy that will accommodate donated books. We have NOT banned donated books. We are working on policy to accommodate free books for inmates. In fact, we will work with inmates and seek out specific genres.
• We are working with religious organizations, correspondence courses and other special interest groups who provide literature, workbooks and reading material to inmates. These items will not be banned.
• Current magazine and periodical subscriptions continue. New subscriptions will be requested through DOC. Inmates and loved ones will not incur additional costs.
These policies actually increase access and we are determined allow inmate to order books at the lower price possible. Additionally, following a 60-90 day transition period, a policy will be in place for donated books. For more information regarding other new procedures you can go to https://www.cor.pa.gov/Initiatives/Pages/FAQ-New-Procedures.aspx.
The DOC understands access to literature and education is an integral component to healthy rehabilitation and through these new policies it is our goal to provide inmates with even more reading material than the ever had before. The DOC also understands support from the public is another important facet to healthy rehabilitation. We thank you for being passionate about this topic, and we appreciate your continued support for the incarcerated class here in Pennsylvania.
If you have any other questions or concerns please reach out to the DOC again.
posted by aetg at 3:53 PM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thanks for posting that aetg. It does give some context to the policy changes (and explains why mail was changed too). Taking this totally at face value, I can see the justification for examining policy.
Having said that, they offer no concrete commitments about price. They promise they are "reviewing policies" on multiple fronts but offer no dates when they will have resolved those policies. They claim they will increase supply at prison libraries but don't name a budget or a quantity of new books they will purchase, or talk about whether they have adequate staffing or access hours for these libraries. They don't address the reality of the e-books monopoly and the extortive prices of their contractor. They say on their faq that family members can't purchase books (straight from vendors) for prisoners, and all books must be purchased through the DOC. This is inhumane and bad. Here's an article on the impact this mail and book policy is having on inmates and families. A quote from that article:
"On two occasions, I've received only the photocopy of the envelope that the mail came in, but not the letters," he said. He filed a grievance asking for the mail to be reprinted, but it was rejected. "So I don't expect to ever get my mail."
Also of note from the article, on Smart Communications, the corporation processing inmate mail in Florida: The Department of Corrections contracted with the vendor through an emergency-procurement process, which means there was no public solicitation or competitive bidding process.
Also, there's a moratorium on food vending in the visitation rooms. Going to visit a loved one in prison can be an all day trip so this has a real impact on families.
It sounds like there are two possibly real problems in Pennsylvania prisons (although I have yet to see an article giving evidence for either claim): an increase in illicit drug use and a possibility that an unknown toxic substance was being mailed to prisons. I can think of a lot of other ways to address these problems locally, but of course they involve spending money locally. But it seems to me this just highlights the bigger problem: If you incarcerate so many people, then you will have to manage those people. People who have a history of harmful or self harming behaviors. People with few to no economic options. People with severe trauma and addiction histories.
These new policies are totally jacked up and must be stopped, but in a way they seem like just a part of the larger system of mass incarceration. You lock up so many people, and you will have very real problems managing them. What if we stopped locking up so many people? What if we let people out? What if we spent prison money on schools and rec programs and mental health programs and universal health care? I feel like we're in a moment when we can be ambitious in our demands. Trump has proven that we shouldn't limit ourselves to ideas that are small and 'realistic'. Fuck these rules that keep books and letters out of prisoner's hands, but also, fuck the whole prison system.
posted by latkes at 9:34 PM on October 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
Having said that, they offer no concrete commitments about price. They promise they are "reviewing policies" on multiple fronts but offer no dates when they will have resolved those policies. They claim they will increase supply at prison libraries but don't name a budget or a quantity of new books they will purchase, or talk about whether they have adequate staffing or access hours for these libraries. They don't address the reality of the e-books monopoly and the extortive prices of their contractor. They say on their faq that family members can't purchase books (straight from vendors) for prisoners, and all books must be purchased through the DOC. This is inhumane and bad. Here's an article on the impact this mail and book policy is having on inmates and families. A quote from that article:
"On two occasions, I've received only the photocopy of the envelope that the mail came in, but not the letters," he said. He filed a grievance asking for the mail to be reprinted, but it was rejected. "So I don't expect to ever get my mail."
Also of note from the article, on Smart Communications, the corporation processing inmate mail in Florida: The Department of Corrections contracted with the vendor through an emergency-procurement process, which means there was no public solicitation or competitive bidding process.
Also, there's a moratorium on food vending in the visitation rooms. Going to visit a loved one in prison can be an all day trip so this has a real impact on families.
It sounds like there are two possibly real problems in Pennsylvania prisons (although I have yet to see an article giving evidence for either claim): an increase in illicit drug use and a possibility that an unknown toxic substance was being mailed to prisons. I can think of a lot of other ways to address these problems locally, but of course they involve spending money locally. But it seems to me this just highlights the bigger problem: If you incarcerate so many people, then you will have to manage those people. People who have a history of harmful or self harming behaviors. People with few to no economic options. People with severe trauma and addiction histories.
These new policies are totally jacked up and must be stopped, but in a way they seem like just a part of the larger system of mass incarceration. You lock up so many people, and you will have very real problems managing them. What if we stopped locking up so many people? What if we let people out? What if we spent prison money on schools and rec programs and mental health programs and universal health care? I feel like we're in a moment when we can be ambitious in our demands. Trump has proven that we shouldn't limit ourselves to ideas that are small and 'realistic'. Fuck these rules that keep books and letters out of prisoner's hands, but also, fuck the whole prison system.
posted by latkes at 9:34 PM on October 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
Maybe once someone is disenfranchised, they should also be freed from having to pay taxes; otherwise what you’ve got there is taxation without representation. Seems to me you guys fought a war about that one time.
Of course, I live in the fully-automated gay communist space utopia of Canada where even current felons get to vote (in the riding they lived in prior to incarceration) so what do I know?
13 million non-citizen resident aliens pay taxes in the US with zero representation. Millions of undocumented immigrants pay taxes as well.
The United States has never really cared at all about living up to the no taxation without representation credo.
posted by srboisvert at 3:54 PM on October 19, 2018
Of course, I live in the fully-automated gay communist space utopia of Canada where even current felons get to vote (in the riding they lived in prior to incarceration) so what do I know?
13 million non-citizen resident aliens pay taxes in the US with zero representation. Millions of undocumented immigrants pay taxes as well.
The United States has never really cared at all about living up to the no taxation without representation credo.
posted by srboisvert at 3:54 PM on October 19, 2018
praemunire: "The main use of prison labor is to replace labor within the prison itself, which is its own problem--but that only places downward pressure on the wages of DOC employees, whom I am not excessively worried about."
If you care about prisoners you should care about the wages of DOC employees being fair. Unfair wages are going to breed resentment and anger that will negatively impact prisoners.
posted by Mitheral at 8:25 AM on October 23, 2018
If you care about prisoners you should care about the wages of DOC employees being fair. Unfair wages are going to breed resentment and anger that will negatively impact prisoners.
posted by Mitheral at 8:25 AM on October 23, 2018
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posted by Monday at 10:23 PM on October 14, 2018 [66 favorites]