extremely mad because my relative in American prison has let me know that from now on, instead of being charged once per book or per song and having the files added permanently to his account, he's going to ALSO be charged by the minute to read or listen to music on the tablets that are the only things they're allowed to use.

reminder that paying prisoners (vastly) less than minimum wage is legal in the US because they're defined as an exception to anti-slavery laws.

@0xabad1dea

Let me guess. Is this a private prison?

(Private prisons are a thing that should not exist, but somehow do in modern America.)

@bruce @0xabad1dea even in public prisons they often outsource/privatize a lot of the prisoner communication, commissary, and now apparently library systems

@butternut
We knew someone in jail (pretrial) for 18 months and had thought of sending them something. They were too poor to afford the cash bail, so you know they're not going to have a balance on their account.

The web site was horrible, like it should have had a 'works best with Netscape Navigator" badge, but the prices for everything. Nothing physical could be sent direct, but I could pay $100 to send $5 worth of snacks.

They weren't even convicted yet.

@bruce @0xabad1dea