this is a big story: biden admin is beginning to end physical mail for federal prisoners. there's a lot more to this, and it's a story of corporate profiteering off human caging (1) smartcommunications.us/mailguard.cfm
the multi-billion $$ prison profiteering industry has long viewed mail as one of the last untapped cash cows. their plan? end all physical mail so that they can charge $$$ for tablets, scanning, and surveillance of mail into jails/prisons. (2) prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jul/…
this industry is barbaric. it has privatized medical care, food, phone calls, prison labor, and virtually every other aspect of US mass human caging for profit. learn more about the industry here: worthrises.org/courseintroduc…
Update: we are hoping that a journalist will pick the mail story up and look into it more. from what we can tell so far: Biden admin transition team chose to keep this trump pilot program to begin end physical mail in BOP, as is already happening in cruelest state prisons
it was probably easiest for biden transition team to keep the company's contract: these companies are powerful, BOP wants to surveil prisoner mail, they don't care about families and prisoners, and b/c not enough people hold them accountable politically for this.
our staff still being barred from sending physical mail to a BOP institution and forced to send to this company--appears that BOP allows wardens to opt into or out of pilot program
we are all so desensitized to this stuff that we don't even recognize that, in a reasonable world, biden transition would have immediately announced investigation and end to this profiteering instead of quietly continued the contract that allows wardens to expand it.
keep in mind: biden issued very mild (insufficient) order re: private prisons but didn't touch all of the rampant profiteering inside and related to *public* prisons.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alec Karakatsanis

Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @equalityAlec

11 Feb
Thread: When working on bail in Alabama, we found a man trapped in jail for cocaine possession because he couldn't pay $500 cash. He had been there for 3 years, and the system had forgotten to give him a lawyer. What happened to him is important. (1)
After two years in jail, the man desperately sent letters to the court trying to figure out what was happening to him. (2)
The prosecutor and the court chose not to release him or have a hearing about whether he should be kept in a cage for $500. Instead, they gave him a lawyer after a few weeks. (3)
Read 7 tweets
10 Feb
Thread: a 9-year-old girl has now been caged in immigration detention for more than 500 days. (1) bbc.com/news/world-us-…
many of the most prominent people in our society profit from this detention, including the owner of the Detroit Pistons, Tom Gores. (2) worthrises.org/wedeservebetter
this NBA owner's company did one of the most evil things i've seen: worked with jails to get rid of in-person family visits so people caged because they can't pay bail or because they are immigrants can't hug their children. the plan was to make more $$ from jail calls. (3)
Read 4 tweets
9 Feb
Message to journalists: it can cause a lot of harm when you use words like "ambitious" and "major" and "significant" to describe reforms proposed by politicians. (1)
It is editorializing that you don't need to do. It's a political *choice* by reporters/editors to describe a politician's proposal that way. It subtly sets the boundaries for what change people think is reasonable and possible. It's an insidious kind of propaganda. (2)
For example: the US cages Black people at 6 times the rate of South Africa at the height of apartheid. Is a politician's policy proposal that changes that discrimination to 5.9 times "major" or "ambitious"? (3)
Read 7 tweets
8 Feb
THREAD: The problems with police are different from what we're usually told. The issue is not a few "bad apples." (1)
It's not “bad apples" who quintupled the US incarceration rate. It's not "bad apples" who have led this country to cage Black people at six times the rate of South Africa at the height of Apartheid. (2)
It's not “bad apples" who buy tanks and grenade launchers and facial recognition databases for themselves or who invented cash bail. It's not “bad apples" who cage disproportionately Black people for not having safe places to live or medical care for their addiction. (3)
Read 4 tweets
6 Feb
THREAD: It is with sadness that I tell you about Preston Chaney, who died in the Houston jail of COVID. He was trapped there for 3.5 months because he couldn't pay $100 after being accused of stealing lawn equipment and frozen meat. His story is important. (1)
Preston Chaney was 64 years old, and he had diabetes, heart disease, and liver disease. He was forgotten inside the jail because he was poor. Records show he was never even taken to the court in charge of his case. (2)
There is no room for social distancing in the crowded jail. Preston Chaney couldn't protect himself. He had difficulty breathing and was taken to the hospital where he was intubated and died struggling for oxygen. (3)
Read 9 tweets
4 Feb
thread: late last night, our team found another 17-year-old child trapped in the adult jail in houston because he can't pay $1,000 cash. he's been there for almost two months, forgotten. he was arrested after missing court because he was given the wrong date on his paperwork.
the child is one of about 9,000 people trapped inside the harris countty jail as the virus surges. most of them are trapped there because they can't pay cash to be home with their families while they are presumed innocent.
our team is working hard with people on the ground to get him out of jail, and i will keep you posted.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!