Jail Inmates Pay For TV

Apparently, TV is a necessity even for jail inmates. With the digital transition coming just around the corner, inmates at the Shawnee County Jail will be left without their special shows. Rather than paying for a cable service with taxpayer money, the prisoners can spend money with the jail’s commissary system, and proceeds will go towards cable. This special inmate fund goes towards items that aren’t provided for by taxpayers. Other profits can go towards recreation equipment and things such as lawn mowers, as they typically do. Inmates can purchase things like snacks, stationary, or hygiene products, and have these items delivered, also helping pay for the cable service.

Because it won’t be coming out of the taxpayer’s pocket, the commission voted 3-0 that the director of the department of corrections, Dick Kline, can get proposals for the limited service for cable television. The limited service will be for 43 TV sets, all in common areas, not in individual cells.

The digital transition will happen on February, and unlike many consumers, the jail can’t utilize set-top converter boxes. The walls of the jail are too thick for this type of over-the-air broadcasts, so the cable service will be very limited, mostly to all local channels.

There are many reasons to offer cable television to inmates, because, as Kline mentions, many of the people there have yet to be convicted of a crime. Many people just can’t get enough money to post bond, and so they are in the jail pending their trials. Even then, many people in a jail aren’t there for as long as people in prison. Kline said “They will be back in the community in a relatively short period of time.” It can also be used as a method to manage behavior. “If they start to act bad, that’s the first thing to go.”

This all just goes to show, nobody can live without cable TV.