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The underground economy of solitary confinement

themarshallproject.org

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Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#151

Post by ROTMetro »

kingcharles wrote: post #147
ROTMetro wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lot's of reasons. Read the court cases and see why the judges explain it's actually legal to do and see you have no chance of winning. Or read the Prosecution reply briefs where the Prosecutors point out that the convicted felon as part of his plea agreement agreed to not challenge his conviction in any way. If you take a plea (which cuts 20 years off your sentence because of the trial tax ( https://www.americanbar.o…

This man speaks the truth and obviously has a lot of experience with the system. It is hard. Hard, hard, hard. You have to sue yourself, without counsel, unless you are rich. Almost no lawyers will take these cases up on contingency (what you see on TV where the lawyer puts up all the costs with the hopes of making his money back from the settlement) as they are mostly losing cases. The courts HATE prisoner rights ca…

Also a lawyer taking these cases is the kiss of death for future cases in a judges court room, which means no future clients will use that lawyer. The judge has all the power, and lawyers can not afford to alienate them. No one ever considers that power dynamic. All a judge has to do it let it be tacitly known a lawyer will not win in his court room and that lawyer is done.

I am getting really uncomfortable posting now.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#152

Post by ROTMetro »

kingcharles wrote: post #146
lupire wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After such ongoing illegal torture, why don't former prisoners or their loved ones get together and execute serious reprisals?

Here's what happens: everyone who gets out of jail instantly forgets about everyone in jail. I'm exaggerating for effect, but it's mostly true. My brain has done some sort of self-preservation thing and I've only been out for 6 months and I can't remember most of what happened over the 8 years I did inside. I sued while I was in there for dozens of things connected to solitary confinement. For instance, for detainees…

Truth right here. Keep your head up brother!

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#153

Post by ROTMetro »

kingcharles wrote: post #145
symlinkk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How were the other prisoners? Did you feel physically threatened by them?

Very, very rarely. I got into one serious fight and lost (broken nose). I toughened up real quick. People are going to steal your shit from you, or you're going to lend someone something (say some coffee until commissary day) and they won't give it back. What will you do? If you don't fight then everyone will know they can take advantage of you. You have to at least have to intimidate the other person and make it see…

The question I was asked when I got in is men fight and women fuck, which are you? Like I said in another post, PREA has really cut down on prison rape in the Feds, but when you are fresh in, dude, that question does not help to calm you down.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#154

Post by ROTMetro »

BbzzbB wrote: post #127
Dieselroar88 wrote: post #24

Did 20 months in federal for selling cannabis. Also spent time in solitary. Conditions are far worse than you could imagine. Also, many prisons are functionally solitary so the 4% number is way low. The economic networks in prisons are wild, and of course there are incentives for guards to participate. Not only are there massive number of cell phones in prisons, there are cell phones in solitary because the guards sm…

I assume they wouldn't put electronic outlets in solitary cells, so how did it work for phones? You'd get to use it for 3-5 hours before the battery runs out and then a guard swaps it for a charged one?

Oh no, it's super random what you do and don't have. You have power outlets in your cells. Inmates have CPap machines and oxygen condensers they need to keep them alive. You even have microUSB chargers to charge your MP3 player (https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-jailbreak-a-Sandisk-mp3-tha...). But in the Feds a phone is an automatic escape charge, so if you are caught your are guaranteed to go up one security level. Now I am getting really uncomfortable because can really be traced to me, but funny story I had a Russian girlfriend when I went in. On every call (which is monitored by the COs) she would say the limited calls (15 minute max, 250 minutes a month) and calls not on her time sucked, and that I needed to talk to the Russian inmates and get a cell phone. She never understood when I tried to get her to stop saying this on the calls.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#155

Post by ROTMetro »

jrumbut wrote: post #122
ROTMetro wrote: post #92

In the Feds, stamps are the unit of money. On our yard a book of 'compound' stamps was worth $8 of 'value' but it took a lot of work to keep them at that price. For a book you could get one dip of chew. I think is was two books for a 'square' of spice, a tiny sliver of paper enough to get you high. You would also need to include the price of an AA battery to use as your lighter to get high. Don't do drugs, but especi…

This is a fascinating post, thank you for sharing your experiences! That coffee creamer and lemon juice cheesecake sounds interesting. Do you still crave and/or make at home any of the weird food items you described? Where did you store 5 pounds of cheese?

What would be really interesting would be for someone to look at all the behind the scenes to make this work. Like I said it took a coordinate effort to keep books at $8 a book and not say $6. This had to happen between the pissas, white boys, serenos, blacks, and natives. Almost like each prison has it's own interracial Federal Reserve Bank. It was in their interest to not let it move down because they are all sitting on tens of thousands of dollars worth of stamps.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#156

Post by oh_sigh »

uoaei wrote: post #143
oh_sigh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming the accounting in the article is correct. Maybe it isn't: > “Nobody can condone someone being thrown into a hot shower and killed,” Rundle said. “We read the same thing everyone else did, but it wasn't until we really investigated that we learned that is not what happened.” https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/katherine-fernandez-rundl...

I don't see how you can read that and take the word of that attorney general as anything but self-serving CYA bullshit. Even ignoring for the moment the deferment of local news outlets to government officials' press releases, instead of actual journalism, the story simply doesn't line up. Plus when your only defense is "you haven't proven it beyond a reasonable doubt (because of all of the attempts to make it impossi…

Sorry, but I have a standard of not engaging with people who use the term "bootlicking" like this, because I've literally not once in my life seen someone use that term and also engage in an honest conversation.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#157

Post by kingcharles »

ROTMetro wrote: post #153
kingcharles wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very, very rarely. I got into one serious fight and lost (broken nose). I toughened up real quick. People are going to steal your shit from you, or you're going to lend someone something (say some coffee until commissary day) and they won't give it back. What will you do? If you don't fight then everyone will know they can take advantage of you. You have to at least have to intimidate the other person and make it see…

The question I was asked when I got in is men fight and women fuck, which are you? Like I said in another post, PREA has really cut down on prison rape in the Feds, but when you are fresh in, dude, that question does not help to calm you down.

Something has happened to vastly reduce prison rapes. I'm not sure how effective PREA is.. sometimes I would see PREA complaints taken seriously, sometimes not. PREA was vastly abused in the facilities I was in to get attention from the authorities for some other matter. And tons of false complaints against officers.

I never heard of a valid rape complaint. I was older (for a criminal) so I would be on "old man" decks, and that is where they put anyone deemed vulnerable, e.g. gay or trans. Most of the jail population is highly homophobic (at least, they play that role in the jail), as you probably found out, so they would scream and shout and file PREA complaints if any of them were housed with gay guys or trans folk. [also: it is very weird being in a men's jail and seeing transwomen walking around topless with DD breasts hanging out]

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#158

Post by 20after4 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #70
Ekaros wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood the whole felon thing, if that is allowed discrimination outside certain roles how can those people ever be expected back to society? Ofc, they are going to do more crime if it is their only realistic option for reasonable income.

It is not in any single employer’s interest to take on the risks of hiring a felon, as long as the supply of labor remains plentiful.

There are a lot of people with a felony record who pose zero additional risk to their employer. Of course it depends on the person and it depends on the job. It certainly doesn't make sense to have a strict policy against all felons regardless of individual circumstances.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#159

Post by 20after4 »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #53
Synaesthesia wrote: post #13

The US prison system is so brutal and things like solitary confinement, which is torture, totally normalised. We need to call attention to these things.

The knowledge and attention to the subject is there, the problem is that a large swath of the US is authoritarian and celebrates such brutal treatment.

You don't have to look much farther than the Facebook page a small town sheriff's department. In the rural midwest-usa county where I live, the sheriff posts mugshots on Facebook and then people just pile on with all kinds of comments celebrating the fact that these awful lowlife drug offenders will finally get the punishment that they deserve. Oh but they are innocent until proven guilty, don't forget.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#160

Post by 20after4 »

kstenerud wrote: post #89
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #27

What is the alternative to solitary confinement? There are some people who are a persistent threat and menace to others. There are 3 ways that society has dealt with them: Execution Banishment Imprisonment We are trying to do away with execution, so that is not a real alternative. Banishment really doesn't work in the modern, connected world. That leaves imprisonment. However, within prison, you also have a society,…

Oddly enough, Western European countries don't have this problem, and have a significantly lower recidivism rate. Perhaps ask them how they do it? I believe there are even documentaries now that explore justice systems in various countries. This is not to attack you or anything, but rather to highlight a cultural divide. To European ears this kind of question feels like it's right up there with "What else can you do…

American culture IS incredibly backward and barbaric. And that's really putting it mildly.
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