Between the Bars: Snail-mail blogging for prison inmates

http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20101114-00

by mbrubeck • 16 years ago

63 16 16 years ago

spudlyo2• 16 years ago

This is a good idea, but transcription for me is a must. Reading the handwritten (sometimes typed) scans of the prisoners writing is just too irritating for me, a person who increasingly relies on Readability to read just about anything on the web.

The last time I looked at freeware OCR software, the accuracy left much to be desired -- but I think it'd be a start, at least on the typed correspondence.

pyre2• 16 years ago

It is transcribed. Just scroll past all of the scanned pages. And seriously, some of the penmanship is pretty good. (e.g. This one seemed very stylized to me, and a lot better than the chicken scratch that a lot of people write with: http://betweenthebars.org/posts/27/scarred-walls-and-more)

spudlyo2• 16 years ago

Oh I see. Some are and some aren't. I guess transcription is something the site's community helps out with.

pyre2• 16 years ago

I found this one interesting: http://betweenthebars.org/posts/28/untitled

bugsy4• 16 years ago

That is interesting indeed. Here's a couple of articles on what got him in there: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/09/ex-marine-gets-16... and http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35215

I'd have posted it on the site, but unfortunately it doesn't allow anonymous comments or easy sign up (have to come up with a email address and a password and then validate it, bah, I prefer the reddit/HN username+password only design anything beyond that is too much bother).

yourcelf• 16 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. We're testing confirmation-less registration now and will likely roll it out later today. It's very important to us that people find it easy to comment (though that's checked by concern for keeping a handle on abuse, given the politics of the site's content).

best, Charlie (BtB staff)

Derferman• 16 years ago

After reading the article, I looked into similar services available online. While I couldn't find any blogging sites, both WriteAPrisoner[1] and PrisonPenPals[2], while dated, offer to connect visitors with incarcerated pen pals.

Even more interesting, however, is that the State of Arizona banned these types of interactions in 2000[3], only to have to the law struck down as unconstitutional four years later. Specifically, the law banned any "attempts to correspond with a communication service provider or remote computing service" such as the sites listed above.

[1] http://www.writeaprisoner.com [2]: http://www.prisonpenpals.com [3]: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/law/1082592378.php

araneae• 16 years ago

Arizona is notorious for all kinds of crap like this. For instance, they regularly use exposure - putting people out in the sun - as punishment. One women died as a result of this treatment, and no one was prosecuted: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/09/marcia_powe...

vdm3• 16 years ago

Meta HN: Why can't HN allow us to create text anchors, like the rest of the web, reddit, etc. These in-line URLs are getting old, at least to my eyes. HN readers know how to create anchors; this isn't Facebook.

vdm3• 16 years ago

I think the fact that this uses blogs to make the communication one-to-many, rather than connect individuals outside to individuals inside (one-to-one), is a crucial distinction.

When internet access becomes a human right, will prisoners ever be able to get it? This has become an issue since media companies wanted to cut individuals off for breaching copyright, with extensive collateral damage, but I think it has big implications for prisoners rights as well.

bugsy4• 16 years ago

What a great idea. Read through some of the blogs and found them compelling.

zackattack• 16 years ago

does anyone else have recurring nightmares about going to prison?

inovica• 16 years ago

I think its a common theme for people to worry about it - through no malicious intent of your own, ie through circumstances, a lapse in judgement whilst driving etc

vdm3• 16 years ago

Could a snailmail/sneakernet gateway to the Web be implemented for prisoners? Email/telnet WWW gateways were used in the early days for people who couldn't install clients, were on intermittent connectivity, etc.

I must admit to fantasising about truckloads of paper rolling in and out of prisons until somebody says "Enough" and gives them Internet access.

The carrier pigeon RFCs could actually be put in to practice here, just think of the potential.

Between the Bars: Snail-mail blogging for prison inmates

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