
West Virginia Inmates Will Be Charged by the Minute to Read E-Books on Tablets - DoreenMichele
https://reason.com/2019/11/22/west-virginia-inmates-will-be-charged-by-the-minute-to-read-e-books-on-tablets/
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nahtan
The US truly has not spent enough effort growing out of its slave economy that
has defined so much of its existence.

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anm89
> In a statement to Reason, a WVDCR spokesperson noted that no inmates are
> being forced to use the tablets.

Yeah but they are locking them in a room for extended periods with nothing
else to do. They are only not being forced to do it by a technicality.

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smabie
I don’t think that providing these things is problematic in itself (though the
crony capitalism is worrying). The problem is that many prisons no longer
allow book donations or free access to book. In my opinion, categorically,
providing more chance cannot be wrong. The problem is when choice is removed
(in this case, reading paper books).

The problem is that the state isn’t willing to invest money in making prisons
better. This stems from the unclear nature of what prisons are for: a debt
paid to society, justice, rehabilitation, or maybe to prevent further crimes?
If your answer is justice or debt, then you can make good arguments why
prisons shouldn’t be nice. If you think they’re for rehabilitation or
prevention of crime, then tablets, TVs, etc are probably a good idea.

Since we don’t all agree on the moral justification for inprisonment, the
state just provides the most basic services. This means that only companies
are going to provide these services, which are arguably predatory.

Prison is a hard thing to get right, no matter what you do some people are
going to get upset. Regardless, I think most of us can agree that these
contracts handed out by states to these companies are problematic and stink of
cronyism. Probably the only reason these contracts got signed was that the
prisons were netting a percentage of the sales, allowing them to increase
salaries and stuff: in essence, an indirect bribe for state employees. In
return, the state probably agreed to ban books.

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mc32
Unless they have alternative access to paper books, I don’t see how this does
not violate their 1A right to books.

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jmpman
Prisoners have the right against cruel and unusual punishment. They certainly
aren’t protected by the 4th amendment. Do they have 1st amendment rights?

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mc32
Cruel and unusual is a thing that gets interpreted and re interpreted. The 1A
is pretty unambiguous. I believe they enjoy a subset of 1A rights, though not
all as felons lose some rights.

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deogeo
> provided by private contractors like GTL and JPay.

How convenient the parasites involved can present themselves with discreet
pseudonyms such as GTL, instead of using their legal names and addresses.

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wolfgke
Then let us fill up the internet with their legal names and addresses.

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crb002
They do this at the Polk County Iowa jail.

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RenRav
These are private prisons right? They just exist to make money anyway so this
isn't surprising.

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bskap
Doesn't look like it. The article mentions that it's a deal with the
department of corrections, and that WVDCR is getting commissions from the
program.

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chkaloon
It's deals with private interests that charge these fees, whether the prison
is private or not. It's still slimy.

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larnmar
In my view, prisoners should have access to (more or less) all the books they
want, all the movies they want, all the games they want, and all the video
calls home they want, all delivered to the comfort of their own private cell.
Balancing this, prisoners should have no interaction with other prisoners —
your human interaction comes through the video chat or through your
appointments with guards, prison therapists, and so forth.

Basically, imagine a dull weekend spent entirely inside your hotel room; now
imagine it lasts a lot longer. The room is big enough to exercise in, it has
natural light, maybe a caged balcony to get fresh air — it’s just like a hotel
except everything is bolted down and you’re not allowed to leave.

Preventing interaction between prisoners solves most prison problems, and also
enables the number of guards to be massively reduced, compensating for the
extra cost of the larger cells and all the entertainment stuff.

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schwartzie
While this might have the effect of symptomatically addressing visible prison
problems like fights, it would only further exacerbate some of the worst soft
problems like the overall inhumanity of incarceration, and its emphasis on
punishment instead of rehabilitation.

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burgerzzz
What's the humane response to an individual that continually commits
serious/violent crimes?

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Cougher
The loss of the most basic of human rights: liberty. But your chosen goalpost
is noted.

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imtringued
The real problem is that they are losing more than just their liberty.

