3/3/14
Profiteers

The government agencies have gone to extremes to confound the public when it comes to its criminal justice socio-economic machinations—profiteering. The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a billion-dollar industry that's traded on the Stock Exchange.

Lately, there's been a lot of griping about Pennsylvania's prisoners being permitted to get new technology (GTL Genesis 116-PA ipad) and assumptions that we're living in the lap of luxury. The public is being misled into believing that the new technology will be a luxury. There are no luxuries in prison. Everything made available to prisoners are a calculated move for the state and private investigators to make a profit and implement control.

The products made available to prisoners are sanitized compared to the products made available to the public: TVs, USB ports, clocks and timers are removed; radio recording devices, antennas and extra speakers are removed; iPads with Wi-fi and Internet access, camera, and other frills are all removed.

The products made available to prisoners are a privilege and a behavior modification tool—reward, punishment, and preoccupation. Albeit, the primary goal here is to keep the idle prisoners complacent to lessen their aggression towards staff and distract us, these privileges are an incentive that can be given or taken away. As long as a prisoner is on his best behavior, he gets to purchase a TV, radio, or reading materials to help offset the mental and physical deterioration of solitary confinement.

All purchases must be approved by and made through a branch of the DOC called the Pennsylvania Correctional Industries (PCI). This way the DOC and its profiteers can always skim the maximum profit from the exorbitant mark-up prices they place on defective products.

As a captive consumer, prisoners and their families/friends are taken advantage of at every opportunity (victim fees, court fees, high phone rates, low quality products, etc.). The DOC receives kickbacks from the outside vendors who win the contracts to provide products and services to the prisoners. We can't go shopping for bargains, sales, or better quality products. What the PCI stocks, we must buy from them. Nothing is free. Prisoners are a well tapped source of revenue for the state and these vendors, which in turn creates jobs for the public.

Just about everything is computerized these days (books, music, mail, etc.), so by allowing prisoners to purchase iPads opens up a new market to exploit prisoners with. The DOC will be able to cut costs while making a profit. Other states have created policies to do away with prisoners receiving reading material and letters through the mail, all because they wanted to force prisoners to get it electronically. The DOC will harass prisoners to purchase iPads by creating policies that will restrict books, newspapers, etc. that will be made available at their PCI. They will also force us to communicate with family and friends through emails and the expensive phone system, doing away with letters.

I'm a death row prisoner trapped in a perpetual solitary confinement. There are no comforts here, only stress and degradation. The new GTL Genesis 116-PA is far from a luxury. It's just another double-edged sword waiting to be twisted into our gut like all of the other privileges.

Why should you care that prisoners and their supporters are being taken advantage of and suffering, so long as the public is benefiting from the revenue accrued? We're here to be punished by any means necessary, right? Is this the justice you seek?

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