Con-versation? :D
10/24/12

Hello friends,

Inmates will find a way to communicate with each other... However, it's becoming increasingly difficult to communicate with friends and family "beyond the wire".

Smoke signals were, at one point in time, more effective than the Pony Express. Of course, the telegraph quickly made them both footnotes. Not many people are aware that Benjamin Franklin - patriot, statesman, painter, author, inventor, etc, made a spectacle of himself (and bifocals FOR himself :D) when he proposed a nationwide postal service... Think about it... for four cents you could have a piece of mail hand delivered from Phila. to Richmond - even more outlandish is that the price has only gone up by .41 cents in the 220 or so years. Be that as it may - snail mail is on its way to becoming another footnote in time.

We didn't leave the Stone Age because we ran out of stones. The same can be said for the Spare Age. :D However, the so-called Information Age is creating a 2-tiered society that may make Plessy v. Ferguson seem like a little speed bump on the road to the White House.

The "digital divide" is a potential watershed moment in American history.

97% of those making over $75,000 a year are "online" in this country - 90% of those making $50 to 74,999. It drops down to 62% of those making less than $30,000 - and only 43% of those without a high school diploma (compared with those who have a college degree who are at 94%!!).

According to Greta Bynum, technology expert with the New American Foundation in Wash. D.C., "The more people without internet access get left behind, the greater the gap between the haves and the have nots. - It robs people of a voice"!!

Being connected to the web is "part of being a fully functioning member of our society". (Curtis Skinner - family expert with the National Center for Children and Poverty at Columbia University).

A few posts back, I discussed the negative impact of incarceration on children. Since I had to rely upon a NRCCFI report that was several years old, I asked if anyone could find me an updated report in order to find out if a correlation was being made regarding the negative impact of the digital divide upon the friends and families of inmates - consequently the inmate's ability to transition back into society.

I was hoping to spark a national debate over an issue that could have serious repercussions for 700,000 inmates who are being released into society each year... People who are being given a 10 foot ladder, pointed at a 20 foot wall and being told "Good luck".

Ironically, I'm being hampered in my efforts to take part in that debate by my mail room here at Century C.I.! Comments to that post were returned to "Between the Bars" as being "unauthorized". - Phew! :D Ain't that a... um... er-rer. Sticky wicket. :D L.O.L.

I closed the last post by issuing a challenge - if anyone knew of a sociology, criminology or psychology major who could pursue this theme (thesis), forward the link!

There is a wealth of information on, and research being done with this subject - but NOT (as far as I know) how big the digital divide's impact is on the recidivism rate! (A "solution" to what I see as an enormous problem in the making could have a multi-billion dollar impact on rising costs of incarceration).

What can you do? Wrap your mind around the issue, then "click to forward" or punt. :D

As it turns out, one of the leaders, Prof. Sherry Turkle, is right there at M.I.T.! According to a recent Newsweek article (10/15/12), she has spent close to 30 years studying the effects of computers on personality as a social psychologist.

Prof. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, can be Googled and contacted - I'm sure she could provide a fascinating perspective on the issue.

Get quotes from Professors Turkle and Alexander - and then e-mail them to Ms. Amy Barnett, Editor-in-Chief of Ebony Magazine (amy@ebony.com). Ms Barnett can dangle the assignment in front of Prof. Harris-Perry, or Ms Maria Schimocampo. The rest, as they say, is a dialogue waiting to happen. :D

I would LOVE to be able to take part in any (or all) of the above - but of course, I don't have digital access - heck, I can't even get to read comments to the things I'm posting to Between the Bars... :D If anyone wants to provide me with feedback, please WRITE to me at:

Gary Field
DC # M05398
Century C.I.
Century, FL 32535

I mentioned smoke signals and the Pony Express - you would have to "ask an inmate" what a "kite" was... :D It's one of the ways that we've found of communicating with each other. :D (Things that make you go hmmm!? ;D)

Stay connected!!

Gary

P.S. It would be a blessing if even ONE person could recognize the issue I'm trying to present - research it, polish it up, and get it to someone who could make a difference - someone like Sen. Webb, W. VA - or perhaps that sociology major that you met at the cafeteria.

There is nothing in the world as powerful as an idea set forth upon a wing and a prayer.