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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

Here in New York City, 90% of subway riders may be listening to headphones or engrossed in their smartphones, playing games, checking email, etc.

I have a feeling it's cut down on altercations and fights, maybe even panhandling and performers. I wonder if there's any data on it or if a similar effect happens elsewhere.

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> Here in New York City, 90% of subway riders may be listening to headphones or engrossed in their smartphones, playing games, checking email, etc.

Plus ca change... https://web.archive.org/web/20151123053907/http://i.dailymai...

Yet the wardens seem desperate to keep those items out of prisons...

I think the argument is that earphones could be used as a garroting device.

As well as cellphones being used to send orders to lackeys outside of prison.

Yeah sure the modern personal electronic device has lots of features you wouldn't want in a prison. But everything in prison has been modified for prison use: beds, toothbrushes, toilets, etc. Electronic devices can also be modified to fit the prison environment. Prisoners who are busy playing Angry Birds aren't busy plotting angry mayhem.

Would be interesting if they designed a pair of earbuds that had a deliberately weak cable so it couldn't be used as a weapon

It might be better to design a prison that actually rehabilitated people. Then perhaps there might be a little less violence.

As a Swede I can only agree

Braid a number cables together?

Make tiny wireless earbuds. They can tune into a prison radio station. They are recharged by getting a new one from a prison employee.

But... then somebody might figure out how to take them apart and use the wires to affix a sharpened PCB to their shiv.

If the prison provides them, they might be made location-aware and tamper-resistant. "Unit 23892 was in Hallway 11A at 1130 hrs when it went offline. That hallway was occupied by Prisoners 981, 1481, and 1891 at that time. Unit 23892 had previously been checked out by Prisoner 2110."

It just stands to reason, as the Panopticon is assembled for those of us who are yet "free", the same technology could also be used for those who more obviously are not.

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