![]() ![]() Many people in prison lack a high school education or GED, have learning disabilities, or are illiterate. But not all of my peers were able to adapt. It was obvious to me that the faster I read and typed messages, the less it cost. The fee structure for those on the outside is different: They’re charged 25 cents per message or photo, whereas those of us on the inside pay by the minute to access the app, view messages or photos, and send messages.Įven though my previous experience on the internet ended with dial-up and Windows 2.0, I found the tablets to be fairly intuitive. Similarly, people on the contact list can send messages and photos to the prisoner. The oddly named GettingOut app allows incarcerated people to send messages of up to 1,500 characters to those registered on the app’s contact list. It wasn’t until 2022 that Central Prison residents finally received “free” Android tablets that host a number of free education apps, fee-based entertainment apps, a phone app, and the e-messaging GettingOut app. The technology was so alien that no one really understood what it would mean for our lives in prison, especially those of us who had been in for decades, but we hoped that it would allow for better communication with friends and family. This is prison, after all-good things always have a catch. So, in 2020, when the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections contracted with ViaPath Technologies (formerly known as GTL) to provide prisoners with tablets, we were excited, skeptical, hopeful, and cautiously pessimistic. I’ve been incarcerated since 1997, when I was 19 years old. ![]() It could easily take a month’s worth of work to afford a $15 bundle without support from friends and family on the outside. These prices might not seem exorbitant, but prison jobs in North Carolina pay 40 cents to $1 a day, and not every prisoner has access to a job. A 1,500-minute package costs $15 in North Carolina prisons, and if you can’t afford the bundle, you’re stuck paying 3 cents per minute. We pay for every minute we spend using messaging services, whether we’re typing, reading, or looking at photos. Throughout North Carolina, incarcerated people are forced to make similar calculations as they try to connect with kids, parents, spouses, friends, and professors. I could purchase another bundle-but I’d be left without money for toothpaste or deodorant. I’m nearing the end of my last bundle of the prepaid minutes I use to send messages, which I bought from the private company ViaPath on the promise of communicating with the outside world at a rate of 1 cent a minute. at Central Prison in North Carolina, and I find myself in a familiar dilemma. ![]()
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