Loaded on June 1, 2024 published in Prison Legal News June, 2024, page 50
Filed under: JPay, Inc., Electronic Tablets. Location: Florida.
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In an essay published in Slate on December 14, 2023, former Florida prisoner Ryan Moser said that officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) were “essentially playing whack-a-mole” in their efforts to combat an epidemic of “jailbreaking” prison-issued electronic tablets.
The tablets are issued free to prisoners under DOC’s contract with messaging service provider JPay, a subsidiary of prison telecommunications giant Securus Technologies. The devices connect to the internet at kiosks unless prisoners hack into the operating software to enable connection via a contraband cellphone—a process known as “jailbreaking.”
Moser said the only time he used a jailbroken tablet was one Thanksgiving when phones were down—which happens a lot, he added—so he risked disciplinary measures to make a desperate call his family via WhatsApp. Providing free messaging would reduce the problem, he said. But JPay collects one 39-cent “stamp” for each message a prisoner sends, while DOC pays prisoners exactly nothing for the work they are compelled to do during their incarceration.
DOC could also give prisoners cheaper and more reliable access to phone calls, which are currently provided by Securus competitor ViaPath—formerly Global*Tel Link—at a charge of 13.5 cents per minute. Though some prisoners use jailbroken tablets to watch p*rn, Moser said most use WhatsApp to get around these charges and make free calls.
Connecting to Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends is another reason prisoners pay up to $300 to have tablets jailbroken. Prisoners who do so lose access to JPay’s system, too, since the IP address of any tablet not synced at a kiosk for 30 days or more is locked out, also sending guards to investigate.
A prisoner with a modicum of technical ability can use a contraband cellphone or another jailbroken tablet to download software needed to update a particular model tablet and wipe it clean of JPay’s proprietary software. “You would think that a device used by inmates would be highly secure, employing a superior level of cybersecurity protocols,” one online pundit noted. “In reality, JPay tablets run on significantly outdated versions of the Android operating system that can be exploited for full unlocking.”
It can cost the prisoner with a jailbroken tablet another $250 to bribe a guard to smuggle a $25 Amazon wifi-hotspot so he can connect to the internet. Even if that cost isn’t shared with neighboring prisoners using it for their own jailbroken tablets, the whole $550 endeavor pays for itself in less than 65 hours on the phone with family and friends. For those who download the updating software, the cost can rise to $1,000, but jailbreaking tablets for a few other prisoners will recoup the investment and set up a handsomely profitable business.
All of which raises the question: Why has DOC let this mushroom when it claims to use “every tool at its disposal to mitigate contraband and illegal activity”? Maybe it doesn’t care as much as it says it does about the risk that prisoners will be exposed to fraud, cyberstalking and kiddie p*rn. Or maybe DOC simply uses those threats to maintain control over prisoners by manipulating their access to the people they care about most.
Source: Slate
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More from this issue:
- Contemporary Slavery: The Not-So-Secret Practice of Forced Labor Inside U.S. Prisons, by Douglas Ankney
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Far-Right Claremont Institute Awards Extremist California Sheriff
- Dramatic Prisoner Escape in France Leaves Two Guards Dead
- Georgia Prisoner’s Challenge to “Deplorable” Conditions Survives Motion to Dismiss
- After Takeover from CoreCivic, Oklahoma Prison Even More Short-Staffed
- Missouri DOC Models Re-entry Program on Norwegian Prisons
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- Trans Detainee Sues Over Housing With Men on Rikers Island
- Texas Bankruptcy Court Rejects Proposed Settlement of Prisoner Claims Against Corizon Health
- Private Prison Transport Guards Sentenced to Prison for Raping Detainees, by Douglas Ankney
- Vermont Court Orders Centurion to Cough Up Records in HRDC Suit, by Matthew Clarke
- BOP Has a Halfway House Problem
- Michigan Makes Voting Rights Restoration Automatic for Prisoner’s at Release
- Los Angeles County Makes Jail Phone Calls Free
- Other Jails Study Miami Diversion Program to Keep Mentally Ill from Repeated Incarceration
- Louisiana Fights Federal Court Order to Remedy “Callous and Wanton Disregard” for Angola Prisoners’ Healthcare, by David Reutter
- Dixie Prison Growth Drives Number of Incarcerated Americans Above 2 Million Once Again
- HRDC Files Suit for Exonerated Florida Prisoner Wrongfully Incarcerated Over 44 Years
- Virginia Sheriff Sued After “Catfishing” Deputy Kills Family of California Teen Victim
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- Two Ohio Prisoners and Two Guards Tried for Assaults
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- Bankruptcy Threatens $500,000 Settlement in Suit Alleging Housing Discrimination Against Former Prisoners in New York City
- “Are You Freaking Kidding Me?” Former BOP Warden Accuses Guards of Recruiting Prisoners for Assaults at Troubled Lockup in Illinois, by David Reutter
- Contaminated Water a Longstanding Problem at Nebraska Women’s Prison
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- His Appeal Lost for 28 Years, Texas Prisoner Finally Off Death Row
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- News in Brief
More from these topics:
- Missouri Expands Prison Mail Ban to Include Books Sent by Family, Friends, April 1, 2024. JPay, Inc., Publications/Books, Banned Book Lists, Prison Mail, Securus.
- How “Big Capital” Learned to Love Mass Incarceration, Jan. 1, 2024. Private Prisons, Corrections Corporation of America/CoreCivic, GEO Group/Wackenhut, Corizon, JPay, Inc., Centurion, Commentary/Reviews, Lobbying, Securus.
- JPay Denied Motion to Compel Arbitration in Suit Over Debit Release Cards, Oct. 15, 2023. JPay, Inc., Seizure of Prisoner Funds, HRDC Litigation.
- Insider Trading Charges Dropped Against JPay Founder, Sept. 15, 2023. JPay, Inc., Contractor Misconduct, Insider Trading.
- JPay Founder Ryan Shapiro Indicted for Securities Fraud, March 1, 2022. JPay, Inc., Securities Fraud, Insider Trading.
- Show Me the Money: Tracking the Companies that Have a Lock on Sending Funds to Incarcerated People, March 1, 2022. Private Prisons, JPay, Inc., Private Contractors, Private Phone Contractors, Global Tel*Link Corp.
- CFPB Hits JPay with $6 Million in Fines and Restitution Over Fee-Heavy “Debit Release Cards”, Nov. 1, 2021. JPay, Inc., Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Fines.
- HRDC Case Sues JPay Over Fee-Heavy “Release Card” Debit Cards, Oct. 1, 2021. JPay, Inc., Seizure of Prisoner Funds, PLN Litigation.
- File a CFPB Complaint for Unfair Money Transfer Fees, Oct. 1, 2021. JPay, Inc., Complaints, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, PLN Litigation.
- NBA Owner Capitalizes on Mass Incarceration; Players Silent, Dec. 1, 2020. JPay, Inc., Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Telephone Rates.
