Hmmm, this one seems Ok / good idea? The bad part is jails that try to replace in person visits with paid video calls. Besides obvious humanitarian part, preserving inmates ties to family and community is obviously important for eventual reintegration and for reducing offense rates of inmate's children. But here? A letter is a letter and free individuals don't get much physical mail anymore. There are obvious angles for abuse and inmates don't have a right to privacy, for good reasons. Digitize mail, keep in person visits and allow properly screened physical presents for inmates with good behavior.
NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
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Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#32Prisoners in the United States don't even have access to the internet, and now this for NYC? Really a disgrace.
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#33I cannot imagine being a software dev for these projects. I'd rather work on a porn-site.
What’s wrong with working on a porn site? I’d feel better about working on a porn site than at least one of FAANGs.
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#34Picking Rikers as an example is low-hanging fruit. Even by the (very-low) American jail standards it's one of the worst.
> Violence and drug use among the inmate population has been a problem at Rikers for decades
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-rikers-vio...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island#Abuse_and_neglec...
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#35It's unreal how much money prisons make off of Prisoners' families. Selling items for 2-4x as much as retail, selling them items and not allowing them to give them away when they leave, making phone calls super expensive, etc. A large majority of this money comes from the Prisoner's family. And because they're prisoners most people will never really care until it happens to them. And this isn't really just a US thing…
Let's not forget about spending money per-email when messaging an inmate (and paying extra to include a photo). Is that program administered by the state? Do the funds go toward paying money owed to victims or funding the prisons? Nope. Private companies (like JPAY) are making money hand-over-fist with no benefit to the prisoners nor the victims nor the state.
The GDP-enhancing privatization and financialization must continue, all externalities be damned
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#36I cannot imagine being a software dev for these projects. I'd rather work on a porn-site.
I'm not sure the technology itself is evil, it is the business model that is the problem. Which is to say that you don't need to be a software developer to be morally compromised, you could be a secretary/recruiter/etc and still feel compromised by this employer's practices.
The only reason they aren't just trying to charge for physical mail letter reviews is that that is too transparent, the public understands exactly how immoral that is. Once you add technology a lot of people's brains shut off because of the "complexity" they assume exists, particularly once the vendor starts with the buzzword vomit (e.g. "High Security cloud service utilizes the latest deep learning technology to detect abuse and illegal subjects, then we have a team of experienced experts for secondary review").
So tech is the smoke-screen here, but it is immoral no matter how you slice it.
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#37I was thinking the other day about how jails are powerful in all the wrong ways. Inmates harm each other and their crimes are not always prosecuted. Guards beat someone to death and no charges are ever filed. Prisons have the power to hide crimes when convenient, but don't have the power to stop gang activity and drugs inside the prison. This is what corrupted power looks like.
Police departments are often the same.
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#38Hmmm, this one seems Ok / good idea? The bad part is jails that try to replace in person visits with paid video calls. Besides obvious humanitarian part, preserving inmates ties to family and community is obviously important for eventual reintegration and for reducing offense rates of inmate's children. But here? A letter is a letter and free individuals don't get much physical mail anymore. There are obvious angles…
Imagine being deprived of your freedom and not being able to have letters you can read anytime, only when you’re permitted to use a computer. Seems even more unfair than it already is.
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#39Somehow the left has become incredibly radical about every other issue, but isn't dealing with the basics like this, which have been discussed for many decades and most of the public would support reforming?
The establishment left i.e. "The Democratic party" is on many issues left in name only, and actually comprised of pro-war, pro-censorship, anti-labor, right-wing corporatists. This is much more of a problem with the party in DC than the People. The focus is exclusively on social issues as a diversion from the corrupt theft of our tax dollars for their executive buddies.
Re: NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure — but you’re not in prison. The kinds of people in there are probably receiving smuggled goods or other illicit materials, not pleasant drawings from kids.
I feel sad after reading this comment. People in prison are still people. Many of them have committed crimes against society; some are imprisoned unjustly; all are deserving of human dignity and love. People in prison have families, children, loved ones, and it's an undeniable fact that strong social support networks reduce recidivism. People in prison are not monsters. They're people. I won't deny that illicit subst…
> Many of them have committed crimes against society […] all are deserving of human dignity and love
If someone deprived another of dignity via a crime (say, via sexual assault or murder), why should that person be deserving of any dignity themselves?