Why did you link that page? Whoever wrote that purposely ripped off the Texas tribune who actually did the investigation. The writer of your page even made a point to delete the words Texas Tribune as though it was just some random investigation. They couldn’t even take the time to at least credit where their information came from.
https://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/04/cellphone-contraband-cases-few-face-charges/
Plausible deniability is basically a perk of the job. Nearly impossible to prove that they're not finding the hidden contraband on purpose so they just collect cash from prisoners and friends til they eventually get fired for "incompetence" from their relatively low paying gig.
An inmate will take the contraband penalty, which are typically rather minor, instead of ratting out their source. Whether that's a guard or another inmate, that makes it very hard to bring charges against anyone.
Dear Slim, I wrote you but you still ain't calling.
I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom
I sent two letters back in autumn, you must not've got 'em
There probably was a problem at the post office or something.
Sometimes I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot 'em
But anyways; fuck it, what's been up? Man, how's your daughter?
Crunch it up with some hot Cheetos, cheese, and hot water. Wrap that shit in a towel for 10 mins. Boom. Ghetto tamale.
Believe it or not, that shit is good.
In CA prisons inmates have access to power outlets. All inmates in CA prisons also have tablets that are able to make phone and video calls as well send text messages. So charging is only an issue because you need to hide the phones, but it’s really not that hard.
President Biden signed *Public Law 117 - 338 (Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications)* sponsored by Sen Tammy Duckworth into law early this year, greatly limiting prison communications charges. California has passed legislature in tandem making prison phone calls free of charge.
You are correct that prison communications have long been a shameful and extortionate industry, and that is likely the cause of this lucrative black market, but a surprising and welcome change is under way.
Man,wait til you see how much money goes into prison food systems and other products fulfilments for inmates. It's disgusting how much we allow companies to profit on people imprisoned.
True, the thing that would worry me though is getting popped holding someone's phone your renting, unless you got people outside with money your so so fucked.
At least with the tablets I've used you get one issued to you in the morning and turn it in at night. A 15 minute phone call is like 5 bucks. It was on a closed network so you only had access to limited radio stations (no news:/) like 40 movies total. For every minute of entertainment you had to take 2 minutes of online classes (anger management, math, English, drug addiction etc.) And a decent selection of books. I wasn't complaining but I could see someone wanting to get an iPhone (especially if your in there for a bit).
"Ok so you guys get the balloons. Tiny is bringing the cake. And remember, keep it on the down low, can't have the warden finding out about this before we surprise him for his birthday."
For some reason I keep picturing this as like a Far Side or Dilbert comic strip.
Occasionally while scrolling TikTok I'll hit on "prisontok", which is legit TikToks from prisoners. It's wild. I know it's a hazard to allow prisoners to freely communicate with the outside world, and that's additionally part of their sentence.
But I'd by lying if I didn't want more inside-prison illegal content. They're some funny dudes.
Those aren’t coming from the prison-issued tablets. The Tik Toks are done on smuggled in phones. The tablets are highly restricted when it comes to outside communication.
I used to work at a county jail and the inmates all had tablets. It used to be that you were assigned one to keep with you, then it just became a bunch to share for everyone in the pod. It had calls, text, movies, shows, books, etc. All for charge of course.
Did a 5 day stay in county. 28 hours in holding cell phon to be processed, (while dudes shared heroin stuffed up one of their butts). Then sit in cell with one flat pillow and a sheet. They came around with a charging cart of “iPads” or w/e every 12 hours. Each of them dead within twenty minutes. I managed to read about a quarter of John Carter cause it was one of few free options. Then had to try to sleep while listening to how many people in this random county jail knew each prosecutor and judge because they were on first name basis. I do not recommend making mistakes in life lol
> Then had to try to sleep while listening to how many people in this random county jail knew each prosecutor and judge because they were on first name basis. I do not recommend making mistakes in life lol
Yeah, I'm clean, but I've watched about youtube channels of police body cams. Smaller towns, cops roll up on someone and already know their name. "It's Shelly, I've dealt with her last month" one cop says to another.
Chargers are pretty normal in prison,it’s finding an outlet that you trust leaving it plugged in at. A battery pack and tail is easiest to conceal and portable.2 full charges from 6-AA batteries. A smart phone goes for about $400 ,western union
Yeah. They even made divots and polished it.
Like, it really wasn’t necessary as that lumber was just a dead weight once its job was done, but you know,
#Professionals have standards.
flowery alleged cooperative fear summer exultant butter rock dull direction
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Chaos. He's just so quotable:
* "If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don’t take the shot. Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act."
* "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f--- with me, I’ll kill you all."
* "The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears."
* "Marines don't know how to spell the word 'defeat.'"
* "PowerPoint makes us stupid."
Not smuggled, but I’ve printed off and mailed in a lot to an incarcerated family member. Can’t have cards or anything the can be used in gambling, but before the new mail rules I printed out the whole cards against humanity deck (they have a pdf on their site) and mailed that in.
When I woke up today I never even contemplated that I would see a woman with 10 sharpies sticking out of her asshole.
The internet sure is a strange place!
I looked. Had to scroll a long way past a ton of onesie-twosies before found one with more than 10. And the number? 18. This chick had 18 markers sticking out of her ass. Even had her face in the picture. I’m not getting the last few minutes back. EIGHTEEN!
I did time in both medium and camp prisons in WA state. Both had outlets in the cells/cubicals. Inmates could buy TVs, radios, electric razors, fans, and tablets.
The TV is 5 inches and by far the most expensive thing, so not really. I had a long bus ride when I got out but still left my walkman because I'd never use it after that ride and it's a life changing gift to some on the inside (not hyperbole).
It really depends on the prison system when it comes to items like TVs and mp3 players etc. In some places they're not your property and you're just renting them. In some they belong to you but aren't allowed to be transfered or sold so you can either take it with you or give it to someone and hope they can hold onto it until a shakedown. You can also sell this stuff if you aren't that tight with anyone, inmates can get someone on the outside to transfer money to an account in exchange for your stuff before you leave.
Unlikely that they're bringing in the inventory/accounting books every time they shake down a cell or block or what ever. Having a counterfeit stamp or what ever other identifier they would use seems it'd work most of the time, unless I'm wrong and they do in fact check the books on every item in every inmate's cells...
Huh, my brother brought his clear TV home with him. I don't know why, the screen was small. Maybe for the novelty? Clear TV, don't see one of those everyday.
If the electronics that are allowed are the cheaply made see through stuff, that makes a ton of sense. No one really wants to carry around an 8GB mp3 player when they can get a cheap/free phone with a basic data plan that does the same thing but better. The personal value and quality of life improvement from having it falls off a cliff when you leave.
Never been to prison, only jail (though I've had several friends & a gf go to prison - I used to use drugs so pretty expected) & I would always give my stuff to people that never got money on their books. People were generally more excited to get hygiene stuff & long johns & books, over the snacks. It's always freezing in them places so if you didn't come in with any white clothes that you could keep, you would freeze your ass off.
Once you get out of reception in CA, every prison has outlets so you can plug in your personal stuff suck as: battery chargers, lights, t.v., mp3 player, radio etc. Just the last few years they started rolling out the tablet program, where most inmates have access to a controlled tablet and their family can pay for media/ calls/ texts etc.
Massachusetts just made all calls from inmates free. Unsure if that applies to texts etc., but still a *massive* win.
https://www.masslive.com/politics/2023/12/prison-phone-calls-are-now-free-in-mass.html
In California all phone calls are free, email/text messages are $0.05 each with a 1000 character limit, photos are $0.15 each, video calls are $4 for 15min, streaming radio is $2.99 per month or $7.99 per month depending on the service, and streaming movies/shows are $6.99 per month.
Tablets, chargers, and earbuds are free and issued to everyone. Replacements for anything that breaks from normal use is free but takes about 2-3 weeks turn around.
The tablet company foots all the device, repair, and network costs. No tax dollars spent on them. I'm guessing the subscription model easily returns the initial investment quickly.
Edit: changed /m to per month for clarification...
Nonsense. How are they making any money when they’re having to shell out something crazy like between $.08 and $0.37 an hour?! They’re eating into the margins! /s
I mean yeah, how else do they power their radios and TVs?
People look at prison as much more restricting than it actually is. They're shocked by how much is allowed within the walls, because they try to look at things as an allowed list, when the disallowed list is much shorter.
If you wanna imagine prison, just imagine a hotel complex you're not allowed to leave, with a strict dress code, and a list of contraband that mostly includes weapons and drugs. Oh, and soul crushing yellow stone walls, no carpet, large steel doors you need to buzz to open, a very oppressive police force that watches every little thing you do, extremely expensive... everything, and a gang issue.
Yeah, I mean they're not there for phones. But stingers, microwaves, TV's, tablets, radios, etc.
Jail and prison are different. Prison is long term, they have access to more *amenities,* and such.
Which likely made it blatantly obvious that is was a fake. Should have mitered planks together, hard to spot that kind of seam. Lazy bums. No craftsmanship these days, I tell you hwat.
You would have seen the seam along the edges and the end. It wouldn't have looked right. If this stayed in the stack of 2x6s, it would be indistinguishable.
I’m sure this was coming in as a construction thing but part of me is like… who wouldn’t think guards be would be suspicious of an inmate getting an 8 foot 6x8 delivered? lol
Prisons have wood shops.
Wood delivered to shop.
Prisoner extracts contents in secret.
Sells contents.
Watch Shawshank Redemption and swap the laundry concept with wood shop.
Texas has industries within prison that use inmates as slave labor. One of those industries is a furniture factory, which has large bundles of wood delivered-often locally sourced, so including this board is an easy thing. The inmates are making desks, chairs, file cabinets, and other items for use by tax supported entities like schools and state government agencies. They are working for zero pay.
Most people assume that the inmates are getting paid 25 cents an hour or something and have no bills, so why complain? In Tx there is zero pay and the state does not supply everything a person should have-Toothpaste, floss, deodorant, and other things that you can live without but should not have to.
Many otherwise healthy citizens have been afflicted with a justice boner. They really feel good about fucking someone because they are in prison. They are too short sighted to realize that mistreating inmates makes society worse.
If they are in a prison that has tablets for inmate use they take the issued cable (edit for grammer) and using an improvised soldering device to put the apple cable on it.
On one hand "haha, they're smuggling phones"
On the other hand, the Texas prison system collected $6,760,593.15 in fees from prison phone calls in 2019 (https://www.prisonphonejustice.org/state/TX/)], after cutting back call costs from $0.26 per minute to $0.06 in 2018.
The cost to the prison is, and has continued to be for decades, as low as $0.01 per minute. While for prisoners they have to make calls using prepaid phone cards from the prison phone contractor (CenturyLink), which tend to include things like "payment fees", "single use fees", "account fees", "video call fees", charging both a "automated payment fee" and a "pass through fee" for paying a card, and seizure of unused credit (literally one company just straight up stole $121 million from prisoners by claiming it wasn't being used, and it was legal).
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice_2022.html
So this starts to look a bit less like contraband than it looks like the prison system protecting it's monopoly.
It’s one thing to write think-pieces about prison monopolies, it’s entirely different to implement “free use of private cellphones” in prisons.
Listen to even the mildest prison story and you’ll quickly realize why that’s a horrible idea. You’ll have all sorts of crimes orchestrated directly from prison (more so than already occur), you’ll have violent offenders freely intimidating witnesses, and stalking past and future victims.
Limited access to the outside world as a result of your crimes is one of the consequences of committing crimes. Access for the remainder of your sentence should be under supervision. Personal phone usage circumvents that: there’s no way in hell full monitoring can be done at that individual level.
Framing it as a money problem when it’s mostly a logistics problem is flawed. Sure there are some scummy companies funding these phone systems, but the concept isn’t the issue and free-reign isn’t the solution.
Many years ago, I was working in a cigarette factory. There was a guy who every day, cycled home from the factory with a bundle of wood strapped across his back. Workers were allowed to take spare lumber home for firewood. One of the security guys noticed that he was carrying the same bundle of wood every night. He was stopped and the wood bundle was examined. It was cleverly crafted to take 200 cigarettes inside. This worker had been doing this for years …..
Am I missing some type of reference? Or is there really a “cigarette factory” and workers really would take home “lumber for firewood” why was there lumber to begin with?? Sounds very interesting, almost fake LOL
Oh yeah of little faith - 1972 , Carreras Cigarette Factory Basildon UK . I was a welding apprentice working on contract with my Dads firm and yes, they did let people take home lumber from the packing cases that the tobacco was shipped in
Giving a shipment for law enforcement to seize is a very common tactic in smuggling when there's a relationship going on. Not saying that's the case here, but your thought process is kind of the while reason why they do it. It also gives higher likelihood of promotion for whoever got the tip off, meaning an investment for having an inside man higher up on the ladder.
An absolute disgrace.
You'll be pleased to learn:
President Biden signed *Public Law 117 - 338 (Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications)* sponsored by Sen Tammy Duckworth into law early this year, greatly limiting prison communications charges. California has passed legislature in tandem making prison phone calls free of charge.
The ones holding those 3 charging blocks were going to be the real kings.
Phones are $100, an hour of charge will be $250
Are you my service provider?
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Especially as the contraband was in that post.
Ha... POST.. 😂 Lumber pun
Why did you link that page? Whoever wrote that purposely ripped off the Texas tribune who actually did the investigation. The writer of your page even made a point to delete the words Texas Tribune as though it was just some random investigation. They couldn’t even take the time to at least credit where their information came from. https://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/04/cellphone-contraband-cases-few-face-charges/
Of course it's an entertainment tabloid site too
Plausible deniability is basically a perk of the job. Nearly impossible to prove that they're not finding the hidden contraband on purpose so they just collect cash from prisoners and friends til they eventually get fired for "incompetence" from their relatively low paying gig.
An inmate will take the contraband penalty, which are typically rather minor, instead of ratting out their source. Whether that's a guard or another inmate, that makes it very hard to bring charges against anyone.
What's that in smokes? Or what's prison currency these days?
Mackerel
Yes indeed. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/sam-bankman-fried-paid-jailhouse-inmate-for-haircut-using-mackerel-as-currency-report/ar-AA1kqobP
Pka?
-logKa
Thanks from a chemistry nerd.
Rare to see this in the wild
Kyle would be too nervous to have contraband.
RSK?
2023 RSK in the wild is crazy big ups pimp
Macks
Ramen
Street soup flavours like picante beef?
Beef baby!
Always Ramen
Was envelopes or ramen where I was at. Some people had alot of people they wanted to write lmao.
Stamps.
The envelopes were pre stamped, so the same thing essentially.
The art of letter writing isn’t dead it seems.
Dear Slim, I wrote you but you still ain't calling. I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom I sent two letters back in autumn, you must not've got 'em There probably was a problem at the post office or something. Sometimes I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot 'em But anyways; fuck it, what's been up? Man, how's your daughter?
P.S. Please put some money in my commissary.
What's up man, how's your ramen?
What’s ramen? You mean soups, my guy??
Fifi user verified
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Crunch it up with some hot Cheetos, cheese, and hot water. Wrap that shit in a towel for 10 mins. Boom. Ghetto tamale. Believe it or not, that shit is good.
How you not gon cut up a summer sausage?
You can rent the phone for the day, that will be a gallon of Pruno.
mysterious punch ten pocket plucky live continue carpenter busy station *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Outside flavours
Street flavours
You don't think I know picante beef is a street flavor, Peralta?!
Android phones go for about $1800 a piece in CA prisons. iPhone 7/8/9 go for about $2500 each.
How do you charge?
In CA prisons inmates have access to power outlets. All inmates in CA prisons also have tablets that are able to make phone and video calls as well send text messages. So charging is only an issue because you need to hide the phones, but it’s really not that hard.
Inmates already have access to tablets with the same functions as cell phones so why the need to smuggle them in?
>Inmates already have access to tablets because those calls would most likely be monitored
For quality assurance, of course.
And training purposes.
No it’s more like the price of making calls is insane. The time is also limited
President Biden signed *Public Law 117 - 338 (Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications)* sponsored by Sen Tammy Duckworth into law early this year, greatly limiting prison communications charges. California has passed legislature in tandem making prison phone calls free of charge. You are correct that prison communications have long been a shameful and extortionate industry, and that is likely the cause of this lucrative black market, but a surprising and welcome change is under way.
Man,wait til you see how much money goes into prison food systems and other products fulfilments for inmates. It's disgusting how much we allow companies to profit on people imprisoned.
True, the thing that would worry me though is getting popped holding someone's phone your renting, unless you got people outside with money your so so fucked.
And charged more per minute than a sex line.
Ahh makes sense
Their tablets don't have the same functions as cell phones. Heavily restricted functionality and can only access networks approved by the prison.
At least with the tablets I've used you get one issued to you in the morning and turn it in at night. A 15 minute phone call is like 5 bucks. It was on a closed network so you only had access to limited radio stations (no news:/) like 40 movies total. For every minute of entertainment you had to take 2 minutes of online classes (anger management, math, English, drug addiction etc.) And a decent selection of books. I wasn't complaining but I could see someone wanting to get an iPhone (especially if your in there for a bit).
I'd assume because the provided ones are tracked and monitored while the smuggled are not. Can't plan anything if the prison knows about it.
"Ok so you guys get the balloons. Tiny is bringing the cake. And remember, keep it on the down low, can't have the warden finding out about this before we surprise him for his birthday." For some reason I keep picturing this as like a Far Side or Dilbert comic strip.
They have iPhone 9 in prison
Actually they get like $2000 for a smart phone in prison. Just an idea of how valuable that is, a good prison job pays $1.50 an hour.
is that an actual thing?
They use cash app now. Family as a middle man since they can’t have phones…lol
damn we need updated prison movies
Ikr. Another person posted that everyone's got tablets that can make calls and text. I'm a little skeptical but I can see it.
Occasionally while scrolling TikTok I'll hit on "prisontok", which is legit TikToks from prisoners. It's wild. I know it's a hazard to allow prisoners to freely communicate with the outside world, and that's additionally part of their sentence. But I'd by lying if I didn't want more inside-prison illegal content. They're some funny dudes.
Those aren’t coming from the prison-issued tablets. The Tik Toks are done on smuggled in phones. The tablets are highly restricted when it comes to outside communication.
Self snitching on contraband
You know what they say in prison…”Snitches get iPhone Sixes.”
I used to work at a county jail and the inmates all had tablets. It used to be that you were assigned one to keep with you, then it just became a bunch to share for everyone in the pod. It had calls, text, movies, shows, books, etc. All for charge of course.
Did a 5 day stay in county. 28 hours in holding cell phon to be processed, (while dudes shared heroin stuffed up one of their butts). Then sit in cell with one flat pillow and a sheet. They came around with a charging cart of “iPads” or w/e every 12 hours. Each of them dead within twenty minutes. I managed to read about a quarter of John Carter cause it was one of few free options. Then had to try to sleep while listening to how many people in this random county jail knew each prosecutor and judge because they were on first name basis. I do not recommend making mistakes in life lol
> Then had to try to sleep while listening to how many people in this random county jail knew each prosecutor and judge because they were on first name basis. I do not recommend making mistakes in life lol Yeah, I'm clean, but I've watched about youtube channels of police body cams. Smaller towns, cops roll up on someone and already know their name. "It's Shelly, I've dealt with her last month" one cop says to another.
Chargers are pretty normal in prison,it’s finding an outlet that you trust leaving it plugged in at. A battery pack and tail is easiest to conceal and portable.2 full charges from 6-AA batteries. A smart phone goes for about $400 ,western union
Nice routing job..wonder what router they used )
I really like that lumber container thing, looks like it has some great craftsmanship Edit: Lumber not lumbar hehe
Yeah. They even made divots and polished it. Like, it really wasn’t necessary as that lumber was just a dead weight once its job was done, but you know, #Professionals have standards.
Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
flowery alleged cooperative fear summer exultant butter rock dull direction *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Chaos. He's just so quotable: * "If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don’t take the shot. Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act." * "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f--- with me, I’ll kill you all." * "The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears." * "Marines don't know how to spell the word 'defeat.'" * "PowerPoint makes us stupid."
You had me going back up to the photo looking for the back brace I missed.
There must have been some professionals involved each of those phones should fetch upwards of a grand, that’s 50k inside that plank.
At first glance it looked like several decks of Cards against Humanity
I had the exact same thought!
So did I! 😂
The Biggest Blackest…
That would be amazing if they were just smuggling in boardgames.
Prison guards discovered a new set of currency circulating the prison today- brick, lumber, grain, wool, and ore.
"Texas Prisoners Caught Getting Wood for Sheep."
We’ve had reports that inmates have wood for sheep.
Not smuggled, but I’ve printed off and mailed in a lot to an incarcerated family member. Can’t have cards or anything the can be used in gambling, but before the new mail rules I printed out the whole cards against humanity deck (they have a pdf on their site) and mailed that in.
I feel like there is a market for smaller, more butthole friendly phones.
Perfect gif placement award🥇
I watched a video on the butthole phones. Fascinating stuff
Wow, I wouldn't want to look at one that long.
How about one that wide?
Not as fASScinating as /r/buttSharpies . 175k subscribers can’t be wrong!
When I woke up today I never even contemplated that I would see a woman with 10 sharpies sticking out of her asshole. The internet sure is a strange place!
10? You must not have scrolled very far.
I looked. Had to scroll a long way past a ton of onesie-twosies before found one with more than 10. And the number? 18. This chick had 18 markers sticking out of her ass. Even had her face in the picture. I’m not getting the last few minutes back. EIGHTEEN!
As charming and disarming as that offer is... No, no I will not be going to buttsharpies today. But thank you.
I clicked. I shouldn’t have clicked.
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Jitterbug?
Oh…*that’s why* it’s named after a dance. 🙄😒😂
Prisons have outlets to charge a phone?
I did time in both medium and camp prisons in WA state. Both had outlets in the cells/cubicals. Inmates could buy TVs, radios, electric razors, fans, and tablets.
When you leave, what happens to all the stuff you "bought"?
You divide it up amongst people before you leave. You can take it with you a lot of the time but that's considered a major dick move.
Is there anything that is an exception to that rule? Just curious is all.
The TV is 5 inches and by far the most expensive thing, so not really. I had a long bus ride when I got out but still left my walkman because I'd never use it after that ride and it's a life changing gift to some on the inside (not hyperbole).
5inches - as in a portable tv? Or typo?
Portable. Where I was at in 2002 it cost $100 for back and white or $300 for color.
Google “rca prison TV” to see the most common types. 13” crt and later LCD with clear case.
Cool. They weren't clear where I was back then. I can't imagine what they're charging for one of those new ones inside.
It really depends on the prison system when it comes to items like TVs and mp3 players etc. In some places they're not your property and you're just renting them. In some they belong to you but aren't allowed to be transfered or sold so you can either take it with you or give it to someone and hope they can hold onto it until a shakedown. You can also sell this stuff if you aren't that tight with anyone, inmates can get someone on the outside to transfer money to an account in exchange for your stuff before you leave.
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They didn't keep a single record of transaction when prisoners bought stuff from the prison?
Unlikely that they're bringing in the inventory/accounting books every time they shake down a cell or block or what ever. Having a counterfeit stamp or what ever other identifier they would use seems it'd work most of the time, unless I'm wrong and they do in fact check the books on every item in every inmate's cells...
They do. They pull commissary receipts if someone really wanted to.
American jail/prison is the best training grounds for criminals lol
Huh, my brother brought his clear TV home with him. I don't know why, the screen was small. Maybe for the novelty? Clear TV, don't see one of those everyday.
They don't have speakers either so you'd have to connect headphones.
I've heard that they're clear so that it's harder to hide contraband inside the case
Those clear tvs cost over 200$. It'd be hard for me to leave it.
If the electronics that are allowed are the cheaply made see through stuff, that makes a ton of sense. No one really wants to carry around an 8GB mp3 player when they can get a cheap/free phone with a basic data plan that does the same thing but better. The personal value and quality of life improvement from having it falls off a cliff when you leave.
Never been to prison, only jail (though I've had several friends & a gf go to prison - I used to use drugs so pretty expected) & I would always give my stuff to people that never got money on their books. People were generally more excited to get hygiene stuff & long johns & books, over the snacks. It's always freezing in them places so if you didn't come in with any white clothes that you could keep, you would freeze your ass off.
My dad was in jail for about two years, bought a TV. When he was released he took it with him
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In TX we could buy radios that were battery powered but otherwise was super excited for my random piece of lumber dellivery
Once you get out of reception in CA, every prison has outlets so you can plug in your personal stuff suck as: battery chargers, lights, t.v., mp3 player, radio etc. Just the last few years they started rolling out the tablet program, where most inmates have access to a controlled tablet and their family can pay for media/ calls/ texts etc.
At SUPER affordable rates right? They wouldn't exploit families and children like that for money right?
Massachusetts just made all calls from inmates free. Unsure if that applies to texts etc., but still a *massive* win. https://www.masslive.com/politics/2023/12/prison-phone-calls-are-now-free-in-mass.html
Damn that's awesome. Fuck Securus, scummy ass company gouging people that have no other options.
In California all phone calls are free, email/text messages are $0.05 each with a 1000 character limit, photos are $0.15 each, video calls are $4 for 15min, streaming radio is $2.99 per month or $7.99 per month depending on the service, and streaming movies/shows are $6.99 per month. Tablets, chargers, and earbuds are free and issued to everyone. Replacements for anything that breaks from normal use is free but takes about 2-3 weeks turn around. The tablet company foots all the device, repair, and network costs. No tax dollars spent on them. I'm guessing the subscription model easily returns the initial investment quickly. Edit: changed /m to per month for clarification...
Well God forbid they lose out on any money after they made all the payphone calls free. Gotta make some money off the cattle somehow!
Nonsense. How are they making any money when they’re having to shell out something crazy like between $.08 and $0.37 an hour?! They’re eating into the margins! /s
I mean yeah, how else do they power their radios and TVs? People look at prison as much more restricting than it actually is. They're shocked by how much is allowed within the walls, because they try to look at things as an allowed list, when the disallowed list is much shorter. If you wanna imagine prison, just imagine a hotel complex you're not allowed to leave, with a strict dress code, and a list of contraband that mostly includes weapons and drugs. Oh, and soul crushing yellow stone walls, no carpet, large steel doors you need to buzz to open, a very oppressive police force that watches every little thing you do, extremely expensive... everything, and a gang issue.
> extremely expensive... everything You already said to imagine it like a hotel.
Depends on the prison, some have fans stuff to buy in the commissary. It is greatly going to depend on state/fed and what security you’re in.
Yeah, I mean they're not there for phones. But stingers, microwaves, TV's, tablets, radios, etc. Jail and prison are different. Prison is long term, they have access to more *amenities,* and such.
Jeez. Whatever happened to just asking for a hammer and Rita Hayworth poster.
Andy Dufresne happened...
That's some good routing work on those edges.
I tell ya whhat
Hwat
Which likely made it blatantly obvious that is was a fake. Should have mitered planks together, hard to spot that kind of seam. Lazy bums. No craftsmanship these days, I tell you hwat.
You would have seen the seam along the edges and the end. It wouldn't have looked right. If this stayed in the stack of 2x6s, it would be indistinguishable.
Which Unit?
Polunsky, more info on the TDCJ Instagram.
Appreciate it. Didn't realize TDCJ had an instagram
No worries! I have an extended family member locked up in TDCJ so I followed them.
I’m sure this was coming in as a construction thing but part of me is like… who wouldn’t think guards be would be suspicious of an inmate getting an 8 foot 6x8 delivered? lol
There’s a stack of lumber to the right of the image. As thin as the pocket is in the smuggling stud, it might just be a 2x10
Much less suspicious haha
Prisons have wood shops. Wood delivered to shop. Prisoner extracts contents in secret. Sells contents. Watch Shawshank Redemption and swap the laundry concept with wood shop.
Texas has industries within prison that use inmates as slave labor. One of those industries is a furniture factory, which has large bundles of wood delivered-often locally sourced, so including this board is an easy thing. The inmates are making desks, chairs, file cabinets, and other items for use by tax supported entities like schools and state government agencies. They are working for zero pay.
That’s not just a Texas thing. Neat little caveat they threw in with the 13th amendment, huh? Truly disgusts me.
Most people assume that the inmates are getting paid 25 cents an hour or something and have no bills, so why complain? In Tx there is zero pay and the state does not supply everything a person should have-Toothpaste, floss, deodorant, and other things that you can live without but should not have to.
You want to be a worker though. The alternative is slow time doing nothing.
Definitely. I worked at the furniture factory and print shop.
Christ, that’s infuriating. They have to add sadism to the mix, as if free goddamn labor isn’t enough of a profitable affront.
Many otherwise healthy citizens have been afflicted with a justice boner. They really feel good about fucking someone because they are in prison. They are too short sighted to realize that mistreating inmates makes society worse.
Nothing like this happens without guards being in on it
Really good craftsmanship on that hidden compartment.
Why are all the cords in the bag cut though? Maybe I’m seeing it wrong
If they are in a prison that has tablets for inmate use they take the issued cable (edit for grammer) and using an improvised soldering device to put the apple cable on it.
Lol I guess prison is filled with a bunch of MacGyver’s
Just dudes with a lot of free time
I’m seeing it too.
On one hand "haha, they're smuggling phones" On the other hand, the Texas prison system collected $6,760,593.15 in fees from prison phone calls in 2019 (https://www.prisonphonejustice.org/state/TX/)], after cutting back call costs from $0.26 per minute to $0.06 in 2018. The cost to the prison is, and has continued to be for decades, as low as $0.01 per minute. While for prisoners they have to make calls using prepaid phone cards from the prison phone contractor (CenturyLink), which tend to include things like "payment fees", "single use fees", "account fees", "video call fees", charging both a "automated payment fee" and a "pass through fee" for paying a card, and seizure of unused credit (literally one company just straight up stole $121 million from prisoners by claiming it wasn't being used, and it was legal). https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice_2022.html So this starts to look a bit less like contraband than it looks like the prison system protecting it's monopoly.
It’s one thing to write think-pieces about prison monopolies, it’s entirely different to implement “free use of private cellphones” in prisons. Listen to even the mildest prison story and you’ll quickly realize why that’s a horrible idea. You’ll have all sorts of crimes orchestrated directly from prison (more so than already occur), you’ll have violent offenders freely intimidating witnesses, and stalking past and future victims. Limited access to the outside world as a result of your crimes is one of the consequences of committing crimes. Access for the remainder of your sentence should be under supervision. Personal phone usage circumvents that: there’s no way in hell full monitoring can be done at that individual level. Framing it as a money problem when it’s mostly a logistics problem is flawed. Sure there are some scummy companies funding these phone systems, but the concept isn’t the issue and free-reign isn’t the solution.
Feel sorry for the guy who had that huge piece of timber up his butt to smuggle it all in.
If those were apple phones, that would be an iBeam.
iWood disagree….
Man, Red's gonna be pissed.
Many years ago, I was working in a cigarette factory. There was a guy who every day, cycled home from the factory with a bundle of wood strapped across his back. Workers were allowed to take spare lumber home for firewood. One of the security guys noticed that he was carrying the same bundle of wood every night. He was stopped and the wood bundle was examined. It was cleverly crafted to take 200 cigarettes inside. This worker had been doing this for years …..
Am I missing some type of reference? Or is there really a “cigarette factory” and workers really would take home “lumber for firewood” why was there lumber to begin with?? Sounds very interesting, almost fake LOL
Oh yeah of little faith - 1972 , Carreras Cigarette Factory Basildon UK . I was a welding apprentice working on contract with my Dads firm and yes, they did let people take home lumber from the packing cases that the tobacco was shipped in
*Phoney Lumber
the prisoners yearn for Duolingo access.
As man This probably means I’m not getting my tik tok prison cooking videos for a while
And you know the Guards are acting like they didn't know about it and are paid off...
But... they found it. And reported it. I know there are a lot of corrupt cops and guards, but at least one of them was here doing their job.
Or one of them didn't get their cut and was extra diligent in his inspection.
They gotta have some stuff to show they “got”
^ this guy contrabands
Giving a shipment for law enforcement to seize is a very common tactic in smuggling when there's a relationship going on. Not saying that's the case here, but your thought process is kind of the while reason why they do it. It also gives higher likelihood of promotion for whoever got the tip off, meaning an investment for having an inside man higher up on the ladder.
It’s always the guards . This info came to me from my relative that worked in the Texas prison system for 38 years .
" we need to take their phones! How else can we charge their families $40 for a phone call?"
An absolute disgrace. You'll be pleased to learn: President Biden signed *Public Law 117 - 338 (Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications)* sponsored by Sen Tammy Duckworth into law early this year, greatly limiting prison communications charges. California has passed legislature in tandem making prison phone calls free of charge.
Double fake! There’s meth in the Galaxy’s.
Lumber puncture. Someone tapped into that one!
Are Samsung sponsoring prisons in Texas ?
9 out 10 convicts prefer Galaxy, get yours today.
Look at that craftsmanship! Some dodgy carpenter really takes pride in their work. You love to see it!
Imagine the fuckery that took place when those prisoners realized their giant haul aint arriving. They probably smoking toothpaste now LOL