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Federal Prison Consulting
The Strategist (who is currently building a chess board by hand out of maple and jatopa), sent me the following link last night, which I thought was amazing - nevermind a good follow-up to the most recent post here on the Black Iron Prison.
The site is purportedly run by a fellow who used to be in Federal prison, and he offers consultancy services to people who have been sentenced to the same. For the fee of $9.99 a month, you have email access to him for a period of one month, wherein he will answer all your prison questions, and help you better understand what to expect and how to cope.
I’m thinking of emailing him with questions about how money & currency work in prison, as it is essentially a small-scaled closed community with its own very specific needs and conditions. Could be useful knowledge to have here on the outside as well.
I like this project especially as it is another great example of a human intelligence web microservice, a highly-targeted alternative business model designed to address one extremely narrow informational need. I think these things are the wave of the future, and have started two of my own as well, though they deal with creative and business needs as opposed to prison life.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I would love to hear the abstract ideas if you do so. I’ve been talking with a friend, she is a social worker in NY trying to get poor kids away from hustling and drugs. However, the economy is so screwed in the town there is really no alternative, and often they will do better dealing drugs than trying to be honest, even in the long term. Basically they don’t have a functional local economy though they have the human power to make one. I have been wondering how she can facilitate a prosperous local economy in terms tough enough for these kids to work with, and the prison system might offer some seriously valuable clues.
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
This might help a little.
http://www.slate.com/id/2164806/fr/flyout
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/2007/10/homicide-perspe.html
A Gangsters 12 step program.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I tried emailing this guy, but the address is dead. Maybe he went back to prison. Any other links or possible sources to information about how currency works in prisons?
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
The best places to look are first person accounts by former prisoners. Drugs and sex are the top items. Prisons are outlawing smoking too. Anything that’s not allowed or is in scarce supply has value. If the prison allows personal items like a walkman/ipod then a power supply is valued. People are starting to smuggle cell phones in and I’m sure they’ve got an exchange system for that but I don’t have any details.