The Ethics of Pay-to-Breathe Prison Tech

To understand how predatory this ecosystem is, You first have to understand the mechanics of consumer choice.

In the outside world, if your cellular provider tries to slap you with a hidden surcharge, you walk across the street to a competitor.

If an online streaming platform jacks up its subscription while cutting its catalog, you cancel.

If an app tries to charge you two bucks to read an e-book that was written in 1880, you close the tab and download it from Project Gutenberg for free.

Now, strip away every single element of marketing competition.

Put a human being in an 8x10 cell, hand them an under-clocked tablet running a stripped-down priority system a proprietary fork of Android and seal the perimeter.

No web browser, no sideloading, No open app ecosystem.

No external Wi-Fi access outside an intensely regulated local internet pipeline.

The vendor owns the hardware.

The vendor writes the operating system.

The vendor controls the bandwidth.

And most importantly, the vendor sets the price for every single transaction down to the individual kilobyte.

Now let's look at how this plays out in practice.

In many jurisdictions, including right here in Washington state facilities, agencies sign exclusive master contracts with a single vendor.

Under public pressure in recent years, vendors in states rolled out limited free communication allotments, say a couple of 15 minute phone calls a week, or a handful of electronic message stamps funded by legislative appropriations.

Officials will brag about that baseline.

But look at what happens the exact second that tiny baseline runs out.

You want to send an e-message to your family? That requires a digital stamp.

In some systems, sending a picture costs double.

Want a video visit? You're paying several dollars for a glitchy, pixelated, 20-minute feed that drops frames every time someone flushes a toilet down the tier.

And then there's media.

Let's talk about the absolute racket of prison entertainment media.

On these devices, music is routinely sold on a per-track basis at prices higher than the mainstream retail or rented through subscription packages that cost more than premium ad-free commercial services.

But here's the kicker.

When an individual is transferred to another facility or when their sentence concludes, do they keep those files they purchased with their own funds? Frequently, no.