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Comment by mortallywounded | Hacker News Reader

> "One family member in West Virginia told APBP they paid more than $400 in three weeks for tablet usage."

Access to a tablet and messaging outside the prison is hardly a "basic resource" and it's likely an avenue for exploit.

Should we treat prisoners like humans? Sure. Should they be comfortable? Not so much.

I understand your questions about tablets in particular. That's kind of my bad - I should have provided a little more context. There's a move in US prisons to take away access to paper books and just give all prisoners tablets (which can be centrally administered)[1]. The high cost for accessing these devices is concerning in the context of traditional mediums of information being taken away.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90249550/can-screen-time-replace...

Access to tablets and messaging is a key resource to decrease recidivism.

Studies have shown that continued contact with family and friends while incarcerated increases the chances of having a support network upon release.

I regularly message about a dozen people in prison on a daily basis and 95% of my communications is help with finding housing, finding jobs, education, and legal information to help fix issues with their criminal case.

I was in for 10 years myself, and I can tell you the last month where I finally had a tablet was the most productive of my time inside. The number of connections I made that helped me when I got out was life-changing.

p.s. these tablets are generally super-cheap Ali Express style junk with literally the worst software you've ever seen. Imagine going on UpWork and saying "I need some messaging software for Android. No bug fixes or support required. Just has to take $$ and occasionally work. Willing to pay US$40 for the app." -- that's probably how the thing got made. Some first time coder followed a YouTube tutorial and then deployed it to a million devices.

Should prisoners be allowed hot water when they shower or is that too much comfort?

If you get sent to prison prison, super solitary, one of the things that can happen is that control of the toilet in your cell gets delegated to "the bubble" to prevent you from flushing the toilet continuously (which they probably won't care about) or intentionally flooding the cell (which they will).

What? Of course they should be comfortable

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