For most prisoners, communication with the outside world is a highlight of the day. Whether it's a phone call to a loved one, a letter at mail time, or an 'email' (using JPay.com) in your inbox, it means a brief touch with the outside world and often a way to transport oneself mentally from the confines of these fences.
Shameless plug: If you'd like to write the author of this blog (even to comment on the blog contents), you may do so at:
Bryan Noonan #739416
Lakeland Correctional Facility
141 First Street
Coldwater, MI 49036
(Be sure to check the author's profile on this blog to ensure this is the most recent address.)
While technology advances in the free world at a quick pace, technology in prison is decades behind. Prisoners are able to buy MP3 players, but the price of an 8GB, Chinese-made player is over $100! the cost of songs is $1.50 per song. Color tv's only became available to Michigan prisoners around five years ago. Email, by way of JPay.com, has been available for about two years. However, prisoners have no access to online education (often free), even through an Intranet. Although this is apparently changing soon, research in the law libraries is still done all on (often outdated) books. Prisoners still use typewriters, although small laptops without Internet capabilities have been available in the free world for years.
While many people in the free world are able to call anywhere in the US and 60+ other countries for the low rate of $9.99 per month, with unlimited minutes using VOIP, prisoners are paying over $0.23/minute for debit calls, and their loved ones over $0.25/minute for collect calls.
The prices for snack food items and cosmetics has steadily risen, often at a rate of over 10% per increase, without any increases in wages paid to working prisoners. The last increase was over 20 years ago! Most prisoners make an average of $0.84/day (yes, that's per day!). Hardly enough to pay for the necessities such as soap, deodorant and shampoo, let alone the high prices of phone calls and such.
You might be surprised that Michigan prisoners are paid at all, but while other states offer Good Time (time off sentences for good behavior), Michigan has no such incentive. The high cost of incarceration is laid heavily on the backs of the prisoner's families, most of whom are counted among the poorest of our society. Whether or not you believe Michigan prisoners should bear the entire burden of their incarceration, the fact is the prisoner's loved ones often carry much of the financial burden.
