Prisons Switch Device Providers; Render $11.3 Million Of Inmate-Purchased Music Worthless
from the fucked-up dept
Yet again, when it comes to digital goods, you don't own what you buy. Inmates in Florida's prison system are learning this fact of life, thanks to a change in jail "entertainment" providers.
In April last year, the Florida Department of Corrections struck a deal with JPay. The private company, spearheading a push to sell profit-driven multimedia tablets to incarcerated people across the country, would be allowed to bring the technology to every facility in the nation’s third-largest prison system.
But there was a catch.
Inmates had already been purchasing electronic entertainment for the last seven years — an MP3 player program run by a different company: Access Corrections. For around $100, Access sold various models of MP3 players that inmates could then use to download songs for $1.70 each. Inmates could keep them in their dorms.
The demand was clear. More than 30,299 players were sold, and 6.7 million songs were downloaded over the life of the Access contract, according to the Department of Corrections. That’s about $11.3 million worth of music.
Because of the tablets, inmates will have to return the players, and they can't transfer the music they already purchased onto their new devices.
The corrections system is switching to JPay. Unfortunately, nothing else is switching. Money isn't easy to obtain in prison, meaning most of this suddenly useless music was purchased with funds from friends and family at inflated prices. The prison system comes out of it OK. It has collected $11.3 million on the sale of worthless infinite goods to a literally captive audience.
Now, with a lucrative JPay contract in effect, inmates are out millions of dollars in digital goods. The only options to keep what they purchased means shelling out more cash for the opportunity to put their purchased music completely out of reach.
The Department of Corrections negotiated an extension with Access Corrections to allow inmates to keep their MP3 players until January 23, 2019 if they choose not to participate in the tablet program.
Manderfield, the department spokesman, said that a department code prohibits inmates from owning more than one MP3 player at a time, but even without that, inmates would be able to keep the players because the contract is ending and there would be no way to service them.
Once returned, the inmates can pay a $25 fee to have their device unlocked or their music downloaded onto a CD before being shipped out to a non-prison address.
All of this stupidity is made possible by greed, greed, and more greed. First, the move to JPay gives Florida prisons even more money: $2.75 every time someone adds money to a JPay account, as well as a cut of any new content sold to inmates for the new devices. This has already resulted in $3.9 million in commissions over a twelve-month period covering April 2017 to March 2018.
The music end involves greed as well. Licensing is a nightmare, thanks to the endless meddling of music labels and performance rights organizations. An MP3 should be able to travel to any other device that supports that format, but it never does (especially not if the devices are controlled by an outside contractor). Licensing fees paid by Access Corrections apparently don't cover transfers of infinite goods to devices produced and sold by someone else. JPay handles its own licensing and even if it covers much of the purchased music, that's just not acceptable to everyone up the line waiting with their hands out.
People who don't have much money or any way to earn much of it are out $11.3 million. The prison gets paid. The service contractors get paid. The labels and PROs get paid. Everyone comes out of this fine except for the people who paid for the goods. If they want to "own" more music, they'll be paying everyone else twice for something they bought.
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Filed Under: copyright, flordia department of corrections, florida, mp3s, music, prisons
Companies: access corrections, jpay
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Bend over
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LOL, look at this poor innocent person who believes that class action lawsuits are still possible after the SCOTUS and Federal Government made them virtually nonexistent.
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Unless you find an attorney willing to do pro bono, but I doubt that many will find such a person and therefore said peons will not be able to seek justice in a court of law.
The corp is better off because there are no law suits from poor little people as opposed to one huge one with big time lawyers and don't forget the accompanying public exposure of your dirty laundry.
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That's what the cell phone company that won a SCOTUS ruling on the subject was counting on when they falsely advertised 'free' phones, and then charged people over $30 for that phone on their monthly phone bill (the bill were state taxes they didn't mention weren't covered in their 'free' phone).
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"You uh... sure you're not on the wrong side of those bars?"
The only thing that could twist the knife in the backs of the prisoners more is if one of those affected was in jail for theft/robbery.
Steal a few hundred or thousand in cash/property: Go to jail
Steal millions worth from people who have no recourse: Year-end bonus.
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"Well yes, but see it's okay when WE do it..."
It always amuses me to see those types constantly act as though they have the moral high-ground versus the 'entitled and greedy pirates' when quite often they're making those declarations from an ever deepening 'how low can we sink?' hole that they just keep digging.
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Dont need to beat them anymore..
I wonder if they get credit towards any FINES they are supposed to pay...
Does this count tpowards paying your lawyer??
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Slavery was never abolished
Translation: You can have all the slave labour you want, providing that you first get a rubber-stamped conviction and brand them as criminals.
And then, when they're not working for you, you can make money off of them in whatever other ways you can think of.
If anything, prisons should make money off of rehabilitation, so that the less recidivism they see, the more funding they get. Instead, prisons have a perverse incentive to keep their inmates offending after release, to keep the money flowing in: from the money to house them, from the money from work programs, from the money for music scams and phone scams and everything else.
Imprisonment for profit is a horrible idea, and should be ended.
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Re: Slavery was never abolished
And your point was? Just as a reminder: this is the U.S. government we are talking about.
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Re: Re: Slavery was never abolished
Although I could be wrong.
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No, no, you got the gist of it.
At least someone here can read between the lines and pick up on subtext.
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Outside of prison, I can rip mp3's of CDs I own... (as the RIAA screams) and I can DL music purchased from online sites to any of my devices... They claim they can't give it to the prisoners... yet are shipping a CD or the unlocked device as long as it is outside of prison.
I'm confused how the tablets were acceptable in the prison & suddenly now that they can triple dip again they can't keep them.
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A nation of laws
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Re: A nation of laws
These liars are so brainwashed with their own bullshit, they actually believe their cult of personality is rule of law.
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Re: A nation of laws
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What happens next year? Is the situation any different with the JPay agreement, or can they just do this again in a year or two to make everyone pay up again?
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A large majority of inmates are there because they took a plea bargain, it was the only option available to them even tho they did nothing wrong. Fight the charges and you end up serving more time than the so called "bargain" because the public defender is intentionally underfunded and over worked thus resulting in their inability to adequately defend those in need of an attorney. This is by design, the private prison corporations make money by imprisoning any and all they possibly can. Campaign contributions keep the "law 'n order" politicians in charge of the district attorneys office thus perpetuating the horrific and disgusting situation.
Oh yeah - and prisoners still have rights dumbass.
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I can't help it...
Sure, I heard of cows.
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Balderdash, what could possibly be upsetting to be told that all the music you've bought over the term of your incarceration is about to be rendered worthless, but if you want to pay even more you can save it... for when you get out.
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This is essentially a means to filch the money of prisoners.
Because the US gives zero fucks of its (huge) incarcerated population.
I suspect that they'll be the first to get processed before even the Socialists and Trade Unionists.
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Re: This is essentially a means to filch the money of prisoners.
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Re: This is essentially a means to filch the money of prisoners.
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Inmates hacked their JPay tablets in Idaho
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"You could, you know, stay out of prison."
Our criminal system has:
A 100% indictment rate.
A police system that favors easy arrests on small infractions that can be inflated into large prison sentences, over dangerous, violent targets that commit serious crimes (murder, robbery, rape, human trafficking, etc.)
A blue code of honor that not only lets police lie in court habitually but then pressures their brethren to back up those lies.
Numerous law enforcement agencies desperate to justify their immense staff and budgets now that crime has plummeted since the 20th century (largely correlating with municipal unleaded-gasoline mandates). Entrapment of folks with mental disorders by coercive sting operations is popular with the FBI, for example.
A politically ambitious mostly-white, -male staff of district prosecutors that are merited by the number of convictions they secure by any means.
Elected / Appointed judges who campaign on tough on crime positions. (Tough on crime usually means tough on impoverished and marginalized groups. Voters love it and vote on it consistently.)
An understaffed, underpaid, overworked public defense team.
A 90% conviction rate.
A schedule of disproportionate mandated minimum sentences for even minor crimes (e.g. possession).
A legal system so complex and byzantine that the typical American commits three felonies a day.
A Supreme Court ruling that forgives the police for not knowing the laws they enforce, or the protocols they have to follow to protect the rights of the pubic, and yet doesn't similarly forgive the public.
No means or interest in confirming convictions. Inmates who secure evidence that exonerate themselves have a bitch of a time getting a judge to hear it, and another arduous climb getting their wardens to let them go on the merits of their case.
Forensic tools (drug tests, Trick Pony detection dogs) with high false positives that courts often decide are good enough for conviction.
A for-profit private prison system that penalizes the state when it's not nearly full.
Impacted prisons that often don't have enough rooms for their inmates, often resorting to turning common rooms into bunks.
A higher incarceration rate (per capita) than any other nation in the entire world. America is number one!
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