from Hacker News

The iPod of Prison

by trey_swann on 1/16/14, 11:35 PM with 92 comments

• by bitmover on 1/17/14, 12:18 AM

  I don't understand how they can write an entire article about a radio and not include a picture. Anyway, for anyone interested: http://mmuseumm.com/pieces/srf-39fp

• by tzs on 1/17/14, 12:35 AM

  I was curious what kind of things are for sale in prison commissaries. A little searching found some price lists (PDFs).

  Mississippi: http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/PDF%20Files/price%20list%202013_...

  Federal: http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/dub/DUB_CommList.p...

  Washington County, Oregon: http://www.co.washington.or.us/Sheriff/Jail/HelpInmate/uploa...

  Texas: http://www.minutesbeforesix.com/MB6Files/2010/Commissary%20P...

• by nekopa on 1/17/14, 10:07 AM

  Slightly off topic, but I was disturbed by some of the phrases in there, particularly '30 months for starting a fire' and being proud to have 'managed to stay out of prison'.

  What has my home country become? You can make millions of dollars in fraud and walk free, yet have to somehow mange your life if you're an ordinary citizen to stay out of jail. I was considering moving back to the US with my family, but news from there over the last few years has been disturbing to say the least. I've been away for 9 years, and it looks like that time will stretch indefinitely.

• by vacri on 1/17/14, 12:18 AM

  $30 for that radio is price-gouging. A couple of moments googling found the non-clear version for half the price, which is closer to what it should be worth.

• by sanoli on 1/17/14, 5:57 PM

  Somewhat related, one guy began a startup that simplifies, through his website, the process for family members to shop and send stuff to inmates. All the products are within the prison's accepted stuff guidelines, as it seems this is a major PITA for people outside to figure out. He even made a deal with a major record label to start making hip-hop albums on cassette again. Here's the link:

  http://www.sendapackage.com

  PS. There's was a discussion about this on HN some time ago. Couldn't find it on search.

• by gojomo on 1/17/14, 1:15 AM

  Regarding the next-generation MP3 player and sales kiosks mentioned: finally, a population where DRM works!

  (The linked product page is actually quite interesting:

  http://jpay.com/pmusic.aspx

  It's a mini-tablet for $50, which also uploads emails when attached to the commissary kiosk.)

• by vic-20 on 1/17/14, 3:57 AM

  I work for the keefe group. I was told at a presentation recently that Keefe is actually the #3 or #4 seller of mp3s by bandwidth in the world.

• by stinos on 1/17/14, 12:33 PM

  Sony has always been pretty good in the battery life department, shouldn't it be possible to get more than 40 hours out of a single battery for a simple analog radio? Or is it rahter due to it being simple that they can't do better?

  Might be comparing apples with oranges here, but my PCM-M10 easily lasts >60 hours on two of such batteries. And that includes reading from SD card, processing/converting mp3, DA conversion and an LCD display.

• by DonGateley on 1/17/14, 1:07 AM

  Bring ebooks to these and it will be revolutionary. Prison libraries range from limited to non-existent.

  The cost of ebooks is beyond ridiculous but one would hope that the content providers might be able to see digital contribution to the incarcerated as an investment in future readers (especially since we incarcerate such a mind boggling proportion of our population.)

• by BlackDeath3 on 1/17/14, 12:10 AM

  >Puyallup, Washington

  Figures that I should see my first reference to Puyallup in an article about prison.

• by ck2 on 1/17/14, 11:51 AM

  No wonder corporations love it when we throw so many people in prison.

  The profits are insane.

  Look at what the phone company makes on a call from a prison.

  By the way, where the hell are inmates getting $320 a month to spend?

• by balac on 1/17/14, 4:13 PM

  > Some inmates even had a term for using their radio to create a bubble of personal space: “I headphone myself,” one said.

  I work in a large open plan office and do this exact same thing most of the day..

• by kqr2 on 1/17/14, 7:56 PM

  The closest consumer equivalent appears to be the Sony SRF-59 which retails for about $15. It uses the same CXA1129N chip and takes a single AA battery which should last 100-140 hours.

  http://ukradio.info/SRF-59/

  http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF59SILVER-Walkman-Stereo-Radio/...

• by elag on 1/17/14, 2:34 PM

  Really enjoyed this, cheers. Hunt seems to think mp3 players must inevitably displace radios but it's impossible to overstate the way that live radio can bring a sense of connection to a world bigger than yourself. I've used it myself - in better circumstances than any prisoner - to feel less isolated. "I headphone myself" can be as much about escaping outwards as in.

• by 178 on 1/17/14, 5:16 AM

  So, has anyone found the circuit? Any interesting things one could build out of it? I mean, now that we know how widely deployed it is…

• by baddox on 1/17/14, 12:18 AM

  The article says the radio is "under 30 dollars." I would expect something like that to cost less than 5 dollars.

• by pohl on 1/19/14, 6:17 PM

  I've seen this headline for a few days but had been ignoring it. I'm glad I took the time to read it. I'm surprised how this activated a desire to collect transparent prison radios. Every child should have The Visible Man and an SRF-39FP. It's too bad the latter is so hard to obtain.