
The iPod of Prison - trey_swann
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/the-ipod-of-prison-sony-radio.html
======
bitmover
I don't understand how they can write an entire article about a radio and not
include a picture. Anyway, for anyone interested:
[http://mmuseumm.com/pieces/srf-39fp](http://mmuseumm.com/pieces/srf-39fp)

~~~
vacri
That one's not loading for me, but I found this large image:
[http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz117/NewYorkCompany1/Ele...](http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz117/NewYorkCompany1/Electronics/Sony%20SRF-39FP%20Walkman/DSC04806_zpsf78e9012.jpg)

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tzs
I was curious what kind of things are for sale in prison commissaries. A
little searching found some price lists (PDFs).

Mississippi:
[http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/PDF%20Files/price%20list%202013_...](http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/PDF%20Files/price%20list%202013_1.pdf)

Federal:
[http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/dub/DUB_CommList.p...](http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/dub/DUB_CommList.pdf)

Washington County, Oregon:
[http://www.co.washington.or.us/Sheriff/Jail/HelpInmate/uploa...](http://www.co.washington.or.us/Sheriff/Jail/HelpInmate/upload/Commissary-
menu.pdf)

Texas:
[http://www.minutesbeforesix.com/MB6Files/2010/Commissary%20P...](http://www.minutesbeforesix.com/MB6Files/2010/Commissary%20Price%20List.pdf)

~~~
forrestthewoods
The $1.25 mackerel is used as a currency. I believe inmates who work a "job"
get paid as much about ten dollars per MONTH. You can have someone on the
outside put money into your commissary account each month. Assuming the inmate
has someone on the outside with the means and willingness to do so for them.

~~~
forrestthewoods
Oh, they also have a copier/printer that costs on the order of ten cents per
copy. The phone system is also outrageously expensive. In the camps (think
minimum security) they have limited access to computers which have e-mail
which has a similarly absurd per minute rate.

If you could score the government contract to provide those services you'd
make quite a bit money with stupidly large margins. It's a damn racket.

~~~
jotm
New age slavery is what it is...

~~~
Ntrails
It's closer to true indentured service, where a debt is being repaid through a
fixed period of labour. I think it's wrong to compare it to slavery, although
interesting how the racial make-up in prison supports the assertion!

I do think inmates are probably better off with work to do. I also think it's
reasonable for society to garnish a chunk of the profit from their work to
offset the cost of crime and punishment. Just my opinion, and at an abstract
level rather than specific. I don't say the balance is currently right.

~~~
CalRobert
I'd be more sympathetic if the country doing this didn't have a history of
imposing harsher sentences on minorities, criminalizing the ingestion of plant
material, and a corrupt policing and judicial system.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal)
for just one example.

~~~
wisty
The US has 716 incarcerations per 100,000. From the list on wikipedia, that's
the highest in the world.

It's also roughly the same number as North Korea has (no official numbers,
just estimates).

So the US might not be the most heavy-handed when it comes to justice.

------
nekopa
Slightly off topic, but I was disturbed by some of the phrases in there,
particularly '30 months for starting a fire' and being proud to have 'managed
to stay out of prison'.

What has my home country become? You can make millions of dollars in fraud and
walk free, yet have to somehow mange your life if you're an ordinary citizen
to stay out of jail. I was considering moving back to the US with my family,
but news from there over the last few years has been disturbing to say the
least. I've been away for 9 years, and it looks like that time will stretch
indefinitely.

~~~
Mvandenbergh
I don't believe in long custodial sentences for non-violent crimes, especially
if they're victim-less, but arson is not non-violent.

~~~
aestra
11 kids on my mom's block died in a fire when she was growing up. The fire was
arson.

There was another guy recently who burned down his business to collect the
insurance money. He endangered all his neighbors and the firefighers who
responded, as well as committed insurance fraud. He wasted taxpayer money to
investigate and prosecute his crime. Give him an extra 30 months.

------
vacri
$30 for that radio is price-gouging. A couple of moments googling found the
non-clear version for half the price, which is closer to what it should be
worth.

~~~
GarrettBeck
But how cool is the non-clear version. I don't want to be 'that' guy in
prison...

~~~
nanidin
Clear is probably a requirement so that the guards can see inside and be
reasonably sure it hasn't been tampered with, for example, to communicate back
to the outside world.

~~~
aaronem
No, clear is a requirement so that the guards can see it's not stuffed with
marijuana or heroin or something.

~~~
sanoli
This. They do the same with typewirters:

[http://www.swintec.com/8-clear-typewriters](http://www.swintec.com/8-clear-
typewriters)

~~~
aaronem
Anything else with sufficient internal voids to conceal contraband, too, I
should think. It's a lot easier than taking every such item to pieces during
every inspection.

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sanoli
Somewhat related, one guy began a startup that simplifies, through his
website, the process for family members to shop and send stuff to inmates. All
the products are within the prison's accepted stuff guidelines, as it seems
this is a major PITA for people outside to figure out. He even made a deal
with a major record label to start making hip-hop albums on cassette again.
Here's the link:

[http://www.sendapackage.com](http://www.sendapackage.com)

PS. There's was a discussion about this on HN some time ago. Couldn't find it
on search.

~~~
aaronem
Why would CDs be banned in prisons? I suppose there's more internal void space
in a CD case (between the CD holder and the back cover) than in a cassette
case, but that seems like it could be addressed by using clear plastic CD
holders, which already exist, and omitting the back cover insert.

~~~
gee_totes
I assume because you can break the CD in half and use it as a weapon

------
gojomo
Regarding the next-generation MP3 player and sales kiosks mentioned: finally,
a population where DRM works!

(The linked product page is actually quite interesting:

[http://jpay.com/pmusic.aspx](http://jpay.com/pmusic.aspx)

It's a mini-tablet for $50, which also uploads emails when attached to the
commissary kiosk.)

~~~
gergles
Emails that you have to buy 'stamps' for:

    
    
      Email Postage Fees
      Stamps	Fee
      5	        $2.00
      15	        $5.00
      45	        $10.00
      Each typed page of text cost one stamp. Each attachment costs 1 stamp(s).
    

How extortionate.

~~~
Kerrick
How else would you pay for the censors that comb through your emails before
allowing them to be sent?

------
vic-20
I work for the keefe group. I was told at a presentation recently that Keefe
is actually the #3 or #4 seller of mp3s by bandwidth in the world.

~~~
DonGateley
Do you have any influence on what Keefe can provide? Does Keefe have any
influence on what is permitted?

~~~
vic-20
Nope. I don't work directly with commissary.

------
stinos
Sony has always been pretty good in the battery life department, shouldn't it
be possible to get more than 40 hours out of a single battery for a simple
analog radio? Or is it rahter due to it being simple that they can't do
better?

Might be comparing apples with oranges here, but my PCM-M10 easily lasts >60
hours on two of such batteries. And that includes reading from SD card,
processing/converting mp3, DA conversion and an LCD display.

~~~
mzs
For these kinds of numbers they tend to use 1000mAh for AA cell, what used to
be call 'heavy duty' and this radio is 20-25mA, so you are looking at easily
at least 70 hours on alkaline cells.

[http://ukradio.info/SRF-59/](http://ukradio.info/SRF-59/)

------
DonGateley
Bring ebooks to these and it will be revolutionary. Prison libraries range
from limited to non-existent.

The cost of ebooks is beyond ridiculous but one would hope that the content
providers might be able to see digital contribution to the incarcerated as an
investment in future readers (especially since we incarcerate such a mind
boggling proportion of our population.)

~~~
DonGateley
Actually I meant audio books, not ebooks. ebooks are cheap enough but getting
a portable device with a display into that situation is well nigh impossible.

Specialized versions of devices comparable to Google Glass might could be
designed to be acceptable though. Now there's something to think
constructively about.

(Sorry about the "might could be" but I just don't know any economical way to
say that which actually exists within the language.)

~~~
aaronem
(A note on usage: "Might could be" is a double modal, something which is
theoretically valid in American English, but in practice serves as a stigma of
lower-class speech; it's somewhat common, for example, in Southern American
English, which is my own native dialect, and whose use speakers of acrolect
and most other dialects regard as a low-class status marker. Semantically
equivalent, but more generally acceptable, alternatives to this double modal
might be "…could possibly be…", "…could perhaps be…", or simply "…might be…"
\-- in this case, "might" can be used to express both modality, thus making
"could" redundant, and the further conditionality provided by the adverb, thus
making that redundant as well.)

The JPay JPlayer, mentioned and linked elsewhere in this thread, is a cheap
($50) portable device with what appears to be a roughly phone-sized display,
8GB of internal memory, and approval from the US Department of Corrections. It
is already being issued in prisons as an MP3 player, for music sold at JPay-
owned kiosks installed in prison commissaries, and as a tool for reading email
and composing replies which can be sent during kiosk sessions at a cost
dependent on the length of the message. Adding to this device the capability
to read ebooks, and to the kiosks the ability to sell them, seems like it
shouldn't be much of a stretch; reading might be more pleasant on a larger
screen than the JPlayer seems to provide, but I suppose prisoners can't be
choosers, either.

~~~
DonGateley
(A note on a note on usage: Yes, living for some time on the Gulf coast is
what made me familiar with "might could be" but I learned it in a professional
setting that hardly fits lower-class so perhaps the usage has become wider.
Maybe you have to live with it to appreciate the very subtle difference
between that and "could possibly be." As I heard it used it expressed a much
stronger likelihood of the possibility.)

Thank you very much for the JPay JPlayer tip. I will definitely investigate
Jpay.

As may be obvious I have a long standing close friendship with someone who,
through stupidity more than evil, finds himself incarcerated for quite some
time in a Federal prison. He may be stupid but he is far from dumb and while
reading helps him retain his sanity, he is older and his eyesight is failing
fast. Thus my focus on finding a way to get audio books inside. It could also
greatly assist the less than literate. Any tips from anyone on how to go about
that will be greatly appreciated.

------
BlackDeath3
>Puyallup, Washington

Figures that I should see my first reference to Puyallup in an article about
prison.

~~~
rdl
Don't look up Enumclaw, then. (I actually met a nurse in the army reserve who
introduced herself as no really a civilian nurse in a hospital in Enumclaw. I
spent the rest of her deployment not asking.)

------
ck2
No wonder corporations love it when we throw so many people in prison.

The profits are insane.

Look at what the phone company makes on a call from a prison.

By the way, where the hell are inmates getting $320 a month to spend?

~~~
Shivetya
The FCC did step in last year to fix the phone costs.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/fcc-
approv...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/fcc-approves-
rules-to-reform-prison-phone-
rates/2013/08/09/1f7ac512-010d-11e3-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html)

Do note that the reason many of these costs were so high is because government
agencies make money on them too.

------
balac
> Some inmates even had a term for using their radio to create a bubble of
> personal space: “I headphone myself,” one said.

I work in a large open plan office and do this exact same thing most of the
day..

------
kqr2
The closest consumer equivalent appears to be the Sony SRF-59 which retails
for about $15. It uses the same CXA1129N chip and takes a single AA battery
which should last 100-140 hours.

[http://ukradio.info/SRF-59/](http://ukradio.info/SRF-59/)

[http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF59SILVER-Walkman-Stereo-
Radio/...](http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF59SILVER-Walkman-Stereo-
Radio/dp/B00006JQ06/)

------
elag
Really enjoyed this, cheers. Hunt seems to think mp3 players must inevitably
displace radios but it's impossible to overstate the way that _live_ radio can
bring a sense of connection to a world bigger than yourself. I've used it
myself - in better circumstances than any prisoner - to feel less isolated. "I
headphone myself" can be as much about escaping outwards as in.

------
178
So, has anyone found the circuit? Any interesting things one could build out
of it? I mean, now that we know how widely deployed it is…

------
baddox
The article says the radio is "under 30 dollars." I would expect something
like that to cost less than 5 dollars.

~~~
GuiA
If it were sold at the commissary for $5, it'd be easier for inmates to afford
(and keep in mind, as the article states, that inmates can only spend $320 a
month on commissary goods).

The goal of the prison system is to make prisoners as miserable as possible by
our current societal standards (I strongly believe that 500 years from now,
our present prison system will seem as barbaric as public place executions
seem to us now), not to make sure they can have a pleasant time.

~~~
jrockway
To me, the current system seems as barbaric as public executions. I don't need
to wait 500 years for that.

~~~
thaumasiotes
So, we could switch back to public executions without offending you any more
than the current system does?

~~~
jrockway
I mean, we still have the death penalty, so yeah.

------
pohl
I've seen this headline for a few days but had been ignoring it. I'm glad I
took the time to read it. I'm surprised how this activated a desire to collect
transparent prison radios. Every child should have The Visible Man and an
SRF-39FP. It's too bad the latter is so hard to obtain.

