CA Life on Lockdown – Prison Tech
Imagine that every day you wake up in an airport security line. Now imagine that the security check is taking place on the airplane itself, in coach, on a very full flight. The overhead bins are full, so just below the seat pocket in front of you, the soles of your feet are pressed against your carry-on bag and one personal item. Complete story, with many photos, available at Wired.
Your knees are bent as though you were about to spring from a high-dive. TSA employees work their way down the aisle, opening bags and swapping passengers’ shoes. You fidget in your seat, bumping your neighbor with every movement. His breath and body odor float over you –- aerosolized humanity wafting into a cabin full of sweaty smells.It’s time for a distraction. The TV works, but the Feds have banned MP3 players on airplanes. Luckily, you came prepared with a DiscMan and Case Logic folder full of CDs. See, there was a reason why you never threw them away.
In California’s San Quentin State Prison, inmates spend most of their day on board this metaphorical 747. Their two-man cells are tiny, their personal belongings may take up just 6 cubic feet of space –- the equivalent of shoving your life’s possessions into four carry-on bags. Though they spend years waiting for takeoff, they are permitted to use approved electronic devices in the meantime.
As Lil’ Wayne recently learned, some electronic devices are definitely not approved. In his case, having unauthorized earphones and iPod in his cell landed him in trouble with the authorities at Riker’s Island, where he is serving a short stint for a weapons charge.
The California Department of Corrections allows inmates to have many different electronic entertainment gizmos, from TVs to radios to CD players, but every one must be ready for a close inspection at any time. The inspections are designed to ensure that inmates don’t open electronic devices and stash contraband, but also to prevent them from removing components that can be fashioned into weapons.
The inspection is so thorough, in fact, that the prisons only allow devices that have been repackaged in clear plastic cases to prevent stashing contraband within. There is a whole industry of consumer products made specifically for prisons, supplying unsharpenable toothbrushes along with cosmetic gels in transparent tubes.
Despite these precautions, inmates continue to make improvised weapons out of the most innocuous materials, including wetting newspaper and forming it into a lethal spear. Hard to believe, perhaps, but in 1985 a San Quentin inmate fatally stabbed a corrections officer with papier-mâché shiv.
Though CSI and other media portrayals often show immaculate, high-tech prisons, the reality is often much different. Cells at San Quentin can be cluttered with clothes, bedding, and personal property.
Electronics with clear casings are a fairly new phenomenon at California correctional institutions. They were introduced at San Quentin within the last decade, says Lt. Samuel Robinson, the prison’s public information officer.
The requirement is particularly valuable when it comes to inspecting televisions, which are easily damaged by X-rays and must be inspected manually. At present, inmates are allowed to keep electronics with standard black exteriors if they were purchased before the new transparent-housing rules went into effect.
TVs with standard nontransparent cases must be routinely disassembled, inspected, and put back together. Correctional officers place wax seals on each of the device’s exterior screws and regularly check to see if the seals are still intact. The system isn’t perfect, and inmates have found ways of breaking the seals and reapplying them.
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