TBD | Contraband Tech Behind Bars

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Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s hard to put a number on it but judging from the number of videos emerging online, there are more and more contraband cell phones finding their way into the hands of people in prison, who use them to record TikTok dances, take online courses, and alert the outside world to what’s happening on the inside. Guest: Keri Blakinger, criminal justice reporter at the Los Angeles Times, author of Corrections in Ink. Host: Lizzie O’Leary If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	New Year, new me. Nah. I'm fine just the way I am. Doing the things I love. Like enjoying
0:07.7	a latte on the bus with some music or on a walk with a friend. My only resolution is
0:14.8	to enjoy more of what I love. Like switching up my usual with oat, soy, almond or coconut.
0:22.0	All delicious non-dairy alternatives available at Starbucks. For no extra charge. While stocks
0:27.9	last subject to availability. Just a heads up. There's some swearing in this episode. Okay, here's
0:34.7	the show.
0:47.4	This TikTok says it's from inside an Alabama prison. It's a little hard to hear but there's a filthy
0:53.0	cell with what looks like mold and either dirt or feces all over the wall. The user goes by
1:06.2	at Aries Harris 81. And this video is just one of many that you can find on social media
1:12.4	shot inside prisons on contraband cell phones. This video is hashtagged with Department of Justice.
1:23.6	And when he says report this I'm guessing the user means report it to the DOJ. But these kinds
1:29.1	of videos have also made their way to a literal reporter, Carrie Blayconjer. So one of the first
1:35.0	times that someone reached out from a contraband cell phone was when they slid into my DMs
1:42.3	posing as a young white lady. But like that was their avatar? Yes, yes. And they acted like they
1:49.9	were not a person in prison. Carrie gets these kinds of messages because she covers criminal justice
1:59.0	and because her work tends to focus on incarcerated people as people. People who deserve to be heard.
2:06.2	They were like, hey, I have some evidence of, you know, things that are happening in one particular unit.
2:12.3	And I have video. And so then they sent along the video. The video showed a darkened prison pod
2:20.2	in Texas with smoke in the background and people screaming. Carrie realized it was shot with a contraband
2:28.9	cell phone but she still wasn't sure who had shared it with her. Maybe a friend or relative of
2:34.7	someone in prison. And then as we kept going back and forth, I was like, wow, these answers are
2:40.2	coming like really quickly. And I realized, eventually, that this had to be a casual person at
	...

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