Daniel Gwynn Blog Update
Date: 4/10/16
Subject: "New Tech"

New tech has been introduced to the Row in March. We've been permitted to purchase tablets from the Commissary. There's NO INTERNET ACCESS! We can only connect to the facility's servers which presently provides music & email service. Costs: music $1.80 per song/ emails $0.25 per message. To email an inmate you must open an account with the provider (GTL) at connectnet-work.com or via padoc.net (clinck on "Inmate Services"-- How TO Email An Inmate). Jpay no longer handles emails, but you can still send money through them.

The new tech is nice if you can afford it. Being able to select the music I desire to listen to is refreshing, and it helps to alleviate the distress of my everyday from the injustice of my incarceration. But I'm mainly interested in the email service, because it can greatly reduce the costs of postage, and I can get a message a lot quicker. It also makes communication more easier for those who don't like to write.

There has been some problems already. The Kiosks are breaking down. The system has been difficult to navigate, and it's time consuming to login (we only have 15 min. to complete our transaction. By the time we login our time is up. The USB cable is too short on the Kiosk for us to connect our Tablets to from our cell door. The machine is not high enough to operate the touch screen. Family & friends are finding it difficult to login to the website to open an account to send an email. Two weeks into the sale of Tablets, purchasing was suspended because they're out of stock. Also the system has been stealing inmates' link units which inmates bought to make their purchases.

What I don't like about the position the DOC has put us in is that they took the email contract from a provider that worked and gave it to a company that can't cut it. This move also proves costly to our family & friends by forcing them to use two different services when they want to send money & a message. Jpay was a one-stop-shop for sending money & a message (which was free w/ sending money). The DOC doesn't care about the quality of service they employ for us. They're only concerned with how much they get out of the deal. And by employing an outside service they abdicate any responsibility. Because the public shows no concern for us they're getting away with murder.