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When New Jersey Switches Prison Tablet Companies, I’ll Lose 10 Years of Family Memories
(www.themarshallproject.org)
this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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Without clicking the link, that headline is tough to unpack.
A private company is selling cheap tablets to inmates to let them communicate with their family. They have to use "digital stamps" to send messages, 35 cents a piece and come in packs of 5, 10 or 20. Each stamp covers up to 20,000 characters or one single image.
They also sell songs, at $1.99 a piece, and some people have spent thousands over the years. That's also now just going away.
Then you get to the part about the new company. Who already has a system in Tennessee where inmates have to pay 3-5 cents per minute of tablet usage. Be that watching a movie they've bought or just typing a message.
I know they’re prisoners so there’s going to be the ethical debate of “Do we let them watch movies or not”, but if you’ve landed on “Yes” then charging them per minute on a tablet is so fucking stupid. Like is that part of the punishment? Lol
It ain't about punishment, it is about some parsaite who is connected getting profits