MP3 Players In Federal Prison

As we have written before, MP3 players and other revenue raising services are increasingly being introduced into prisons. The services not only help address stretched prison budgets, but also act as tools to manage prisoner behavior
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The Federal Bureau of prisons is moving in this direction with its recent announcement that it will be proving MP3 players to its detainees. Providing prisoners with a secure prison cell phone service is another means of raising revenue and rewarding good behavior.

The music industry will soon have another chart to keep track of: jailhouse rock. The Bureau of Prisons plans to allow many of its 200,000+ federal inmates to own MP3 players and pick their own soundtrack to prison life, USA Today reports. The devices will be sold in prison commissaries, and though inmates won’t be allowed to access the Internet, they will be allowed to choose from an approved list of around a million songs. Songs with obscene or racially charged lyrics will be banned, officials say, as will songs that “may disrupt the good and orderly running” of prisons.

The MP3 program, currently being tested at a women’s prison in West Virginia “is intended to help inmates deal with issues such as idleness, stress, and boredom associated with incarceration,” a bureau spokeswoman says, adding that “keeping inmates constructively occupied is essential to the safety” of staff and inmates. The program, she says, won’t cost taxpayers anything. Among the detractors: Sen. Chuck Grassley, who warns that it’s “difficult to see how all of the necessary safeguards can be put into place to stop prisoners from using MP3 players as bargaining chips or other malicious devices.”

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Brian

Managing Partner at meshIP, LLC

Brian Byrne is the founder and Managing Partner of Dallas based meshIP, a technology services firm offering cloud computing strategies and services. He is an accomplished executive with senior management experience in all facets of the technology, telecom, cloud computing, and SaaS industries. He has proven success in developing, financing and executing strategic plans as well as launching new ventures. His background includes a record of significant achievement in international business development and his credentials include a MBA in Marketing and Management Strategy from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS from the School of Computer Science at DePaul University, and a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

He is also the inventor of the patented meshDETECT, Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions.

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