digital dignity

reflections

The world left me behind: decades in prison and I didn’t know how to use a computer! by Xandan Gulley

I read Xandan Gulley’s piece on the introduction of modern technology to long-term incarcerated people like himself, and how the American prison system has belatedly made access to the internet a reality, with a Texas dose of exploitation.

He makes an important point about how being deprived of access to tech, from the time he was incarcerated in 2008 until tech came to his prison in 2023, could render any of us to feel “primitive.”

The recent arrival of what we all take for granted – smartphones, touch screens, social media – into Xandan’s life has been a learning curve. But this has been further inflamed by strict limitations on what can be accessed, and the monetisation of internet use, which mirrors the structural deficiencies of the entire penal system.

monopolising communication

In the US, prisons can be run for profit, just like a business. That means many prisons have a sustained interest to incarcerate as many people as possible, to expand their business, increasing their lucrative contracts with industries like food production and manufacturing. The same applies to the use of technology.

As Xandan describes, the introduction of tech to his prison was formed by a partnership between the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and telecoms company Securus. Together they formed a “monetary monopoly” where, instead of emails, ‘e-messages’ are exchanged between those incarcerated and their families, which are only accessible by those with a Securus account. It costs 42 cents to send a single message, no documents can be attached.

This, simply put, is a racket. Not only for those incarcerated but their loved ones too, who have to sign up to this monetised system. It’s left as one of the only means of communication between families, since receiving physical letters is banned, replaced by a humiliating system where messages and photos are not directly seen by the eyes they were meant for, but instead scanned and handled in a remote processing centre.

slavery never ended

It is sadly not that surprising, in the context of American politics, that Texas is a state that forces people in prison to work but can pay them nothing for their labour. That’s right, sweet fuck all. Other prison workers may be lucky enough to make 13 to 52 cents an hour for running essential prison services.

It brings to mind some lyrics from my favourite Killer Mike song, Reagan:

But thanks to Reaganomics, prison turned to profits
‘Cause free labor’s the cornerstone of U.S. economics
‘Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison
You think I am bullshittin’, then read the 13th Amendment
Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits
That’s why they givin’ drug offenders time in double digits

Killer Mike references the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the US, with this one sneaky loophole: “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” In other words, incarcerated people can be used very much like slaves. If we follow history directly from the American Civil War, it’s scandalous that the former slaveholder states pay those incarcerated the least (or nothing at all), and African-Americans are disproportionately represented in the prison population.

we’re all tech workers now

“Rehabilitation is impossible without providing resources to the incarcerated population – and one of those crucial resources is technology.”

As Xandan explains, part of rehabilitation is learning how to integrate into society. Modern society cannot function without technology. Therefore, withholding technology, or severely limiting its access, can be a detriment to the supposed point of prison sentences.

If people are leaving prisons having earned little money and lacking vital technological skills needed to work, how exactly are they meant to relate to and survive in the outside world? Or do we want incarcerated people to just keep re-offending, stuck in a cycle of misery?

The demands are not excessive, only for humanity and dignity. And actual emails.

~ Tommy