Prison Tech
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- čas přidán 10. 05. 2024
- Looking through some prison tech - literally.
Prison Radios on ebay ebay.to/2wcvY6s (Affiliated Link)
Prison TV's on ebay ebay.to/3bL6sEl (Affiliated Link)
Articles and resources used, referenced and related to this video
www.newyorker.com/tech/annals...
www.electronicbeats.net/the-f...
www.prisonlandscapes.com
99percentinvisible.org/episod...
www.greatbigstory.com/stories...
money.cnn.com/2015/07/23/tech...
www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/
www.statista.com/statistics/2...
INFO:
This is a history video. It’s about old tech. It’s old tech from the USA. Every country and every prison in those countries have different rules from one another, rules that change over time. The tech shown and discussed is from a variety of time periods and locations.
FAQ
Q) So is this why they made (insert a transparent tech object here - usually a Gameboy) in a clear case?
A) They also made clear tech to sell to people who wanted tech in a clear case. It was a bit of a trend for a while. See: Gamebox, N64, Xbox Crystal, Palm Pilot amongst others.
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When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon - Věda a technologie
INFO: This is a history video. It’s about *old* tech. Old tech from the USA. Every country and every prison in those countries have different rules from one another. Rules also change over time. The tech shown and discussed is from a variety of time periods and places. *MORE INFO IN THE VIDEO DESCRIPTION*
Didn't you know you were meant to cover every country, institution and time period ever? Tsk tsk Mat. You're slacking.
/s/
Not to mention the Maryland State Department of Corrrections allow inmates to purchase Xbox 360 consoles but in the clear case. Other states have similar products if not the same. As you said these regulations are very arbitrary varying on the institution. Just like how some jails/prisons offer nicotine vapor devices and others don't.
The reason for not allowing cds is because they wanted prisoners to keep using cassette Walkman’s in order for them to use the motor to tattoo themselves. Tattoos make it easier for law enforcement to identify criminals.
Where can I get these?!
Cool
I dated a girl who had that tv, always thought it looked cool and I asked where she got it...when she did 3 years for meth manufacturing.
Would still date her for the TV itself...
Sounds like the start of any good business venture
Hol up
Damn the girl knew how to cook meth? Sheeeeit if she could cook meth dinner would be no problem at all, so that one was definitely a keeper!
@@kenethmeyers3092 Wait A Minute!
“Horrible terrible sounding clear headphones”
Schools in the US: I’ll take your entire stock
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Go it. If I ever want cool clear tech, I just gotta go to prison.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
holy shit
(Got it not Go it) I don’t know why it’s bothering me!
Nah we can’t survive without you
@@nidulaperera You can't, but I sure as hell can!
I always liked the idea of transparent plastic. I would like all plastic around me to be transparent, this is so cool and useful
It’s a good idea… until it yellows
@@wontricpony410 True, you will just have to make sure there is a way to clean it without screwing up the electronic components.
@@wontricpony410 yellowing happens more to smokers.
@@wontricpony410 if it’s yellow let it mellow if it’s brown flush it down
@@IceNineThrills cleaning doesn't fix yellowing, it's a chemical reaction within the plastic. there's ways to fix it (aka retrobrite) but it's still a pain to deal with.
"The difference is clear"... "it served time and now it tells the time". This man has a flair with language.
Psilocybe Vibe - you obviously don’t speak it much
@Psilocybe Vibe
>even an average Asian speaks more languages than an average European or American guy
АХАХАХА no, maybe more than americans but not more than europeans, of course depends on what part of asia but for some reason i have difficulty believing that some poor rice farmer from bangladesh who can barely read and afford to buy food speaks more than 1 language.
@Psilocybe Vibe Source?
@Psilocybe Vibe That is not a reliable source, that is about as reliable as me saying that everyone in my country can speak fluent serbo croatian, hungarian, swedish, english, italian, albanian and french at the age of 16
@Psilocybe Vibe Thing is, just because you speak them does not mean most people do.
Also the currency i use has 3 languages printed on it, Russian, Greek and English.
I prefer the "clear" look. I've always liked seeing the guts of tech, as if I could see how everything worked.
I had a clear Playstation controller/memory card when I was younger. Was pretty cool to me as a kid.
Clear Dreamcast VMU.
@Heavy Metal Collector I had a clear 360 controller at some point, the USB was absolutely fucking knacked tho.
i just bought a Phantom white xbox one controller, is awesome, i need a crystal dualshock 4
I still have my clear Game Boy Pocket from when I was a kid. Something about seeing all of those boards and bits and bobs on the inside filled me with excitement and wonder, and took away the mystery of how it worked but replaced it with the mystery of why it worked.
US Prisons:
"We do not allow CDs because they could be used as weapons"
German Prisons:
"Of course our inmate kitchen has a full set of meat knifes for the inmates, how else would they eat."
Civilization vs America
@@lopanreturns7085 nah too thin.
@@augustusaurelius2628 hate to be the guy advocating for cassete tape strangulation, but if you fold the tape on itself making many strands and twist them together it could become as strong as a rope.
@@jcg7719 you would need like a 2 hour cassette for that
@@oldveryveryoldmanfromthe1900s 30 mins of tape can easily be well above 70 m
Edit: it's actually 85 - 90 m (up to 295 ft)
honestly, this clear tech reminds me of the old "crystal" shell gameboy colors and N64 models. I never really thought about them being in prisons
The objects remind me of the iMac, an opaque device regarded as a design classic by hipsters.
oh yeah, i had a pink clear one
I did 3 1/2 years in prison here in the States, I actually had both those Sony radios you show at around the 11:00 mark(and those Koss over ear headphones, lol). I liked the one with the digital tuning since I could get the exact frequency I wanted since stations were pretty hard to get and it could be a pain in the ass to actually find the station you were looking for a lot of the time. We actually even watch TV and movies with our radios in open dorm facilities since there's no way to for 240 inmates to plug their headphones into like the 16 or so TVs that are suspended from poles in the dorms. They have FM transmitters hooked up to the TVs and we all just tune in to whatever frequency they have it set to. To this day I still wear headphones to watch Netflix and everything else off my PC I have hooked up to my TV because I got so use to it while I was locked up.
What did you do?
@@kreuner11 This is only polite to ask among (former) prisoners.
Intimidation with a deadly weapon and criminal recklessness while armed with a deadly weapon.
Do inmates have access to the internet? How do you find out about the outside world, newspapers?
Proud of you for making it out the other side mate, not easy to do in the states
When I saw the orange tape in the thumbnail I was gonna say “So prisoners can only listen to Kanye?” But then I found out was just legit a Kanye album.
They can choose between solitary confinement and listening to Kanye West. Most prisoners choose solitary confinement.
@@iododendron3416 idk man yeezus was pretty good
@@flootz6719 not my cup of brewed leef beverage.
@@iododendron3416 guarantee you haven't actually listened to any of kanye's music. not trying to come after you bro but just because people don't like him doesn't mean you cant form your own opinion through your own experiences (only assuming you haven't done that because of the fact that most people just see him through the lens of major news outlets and therefore project those pre-conceived notions onto his music)
@@iododendron3416 this is a dumb comment
CD players were long kept out of the prison system because they were being converted into tattoo machines. And it wasn't the tattooing which jails and prisons objected to, so much as the frequently resultant infections which resulted from badly done and poorly maintained tattoos. MRSA and other resistant infections are a very real problem in prisons.
There was something beautiful and satisfying about buying a cassette, unwrapping it, and opening the jacket then popping it in and listening to both sides.
I love that Techmoan is a polite, proper British man who's into hip hop and US prison life, hahaha
John Solo
Hahah! Gangsta Techmoan!
ThugMoan?
it's all about GMoan baby
He's more gangsta that anyone here :D
@@offspringfan89 😉
I like how there's a fucking "Parental Advisory" sticker on a cassette album intended for prisons.
I mean, there are prisons for juveniles, too...
I think that one he got it at a music shop (or at least it came from a music shop) as one of those limited release deals he mentioned.
Prisoners have parents too and are basically overgrown children
I did time in Oregon, they would only sell edited CDs. Seriously
80yo dad 40yo son
Something interesting is that here in Denton county jail in Texas, my brother now has an android type of tablet with classes to take in astronomy, calculus, English, law and 12 different languages. We also have a video call thing we get to do with him. Never seen these kind of clear techs!
Same in England, HMP Durham we had tablets and sandisk MP3's. They caused loads of fights and robberies though so they were always getting taken away.
@@mattwatson oh shoot really? That would make since if some people didn’t have them lol. My brother told me they added Popcornflix to the apps and it has a ton of c tier movies that are funny because of how bad they are. But he said it’s got some good documentaries. Aye thanks for sharing man!
Woah didn’t expect to see someone mention Denton County. I live in Denton currently.
This is the last channel i'd expect to find Yeezus on lol
Until recently, I ran an electronics repair shop. Every so often we would be asked to modify TVs and Boom Boxes to make them legal for use in the Prison system.
Obviously a more enlightened prison, if they allowed items from unofficial sources. As another commenter pointed out, they had to pay $20 for a $1 radio.
@@hamjudo I'm all for private industry and keeping government out of industry but Prison is one thing that should not be left to a for-profit. Now we got a multi billion dollar industry lobbying for draconian laws and penalties and working inmates like slaves for a buck an hour. How that's legal is beyond me.
Aw, did your shop shut down because of COVID-19? I hope you're doing well...
@@princeplotena I don't think he meant that. Also, I don't know how the thing is in the UK or USA, but here in spain electronic shops are one of the few businesses that are allowed to open theses days.
@@TheBigMclargehuge For profit prisons only account for less than 9% of prisoners in the U.S., and considering they tend to be more lax than federal prisons, I don't see what do you mean by "worked like slaves for a buck". Working what?
I don't agree with the profit model entirely, but I can't empathize with prisoners too much either. Some are ok, but most people in jail are massive assholes that do deserve to be there.
One day the prison system will have their own MMORPG servers, probably.
Thats not a bad idea at all!
Isn't there some US state, or country, that had people arrested for cheating in videogames?
@@Architector_4 Quick google search points to south korea but seems to be specifically for hacking. Obviously you aren't going to get prison for exploiting bugs or glitches. Or things like x-raying in minecraft. I'm sure things like DDOS attacks, trying to get personal information are likely the target and stealing accounts are what are targeted. Here is an article with an example of someone who went to prison for hacking in overwatch. techcrunch.com/2018/06/25/overwatch-hacker-seoul-jail-time/ . It is important to note he made a lot of money by cheating. Essentially it is a scam.
@@sed8181
No, I've remember hearing people got jailed specifically for just using a cheat. Or dunno, maybe I've read dud news lol
@@Architector_4 I've never heard of it in the US. Also jail and prison are different. You go to jail when you are arrested. Once you have been convicted in court, you go to prison. You could be innocent and still go to jail.
11:09 When I was federal prison, we could buy see through radios with headphones, we could tune into any TV that was broadcasting in the TV room, the TV's were fitted with transmitters, so anyone could watch whatever was on without having to turn up the volume on the TV's.
what were you in for?
@@SimplyAlonso Hacking into something that I wasn't supposed to.
"Busy inmates are well behaved inmates" sounds like a pretty dystopian catchphrase for your company.
Hardly. "idle minds are the devil's playground" is an old and venerable saying.
The truly dystopian thing is that most of us prefer staying inside with our technology, as if we were prisoners.
@@badgerlordpatrick6493 the most commen version is idle hands are the devil's workshop, with the original being the Latin version of "always engage in activity so that the devil will find you busy" but good job actually making it slightly more dystopian.
But yes, the Canterbury tales are pretty venerable, and they are what popularised the saying. It is true that people being bored will tend to make their own entertainment, but that applies equally to inmates getting troublesome and stir crazy as it does to keeping people from getting the spare time and energy to consider unions or revolution.
And you definitely shouldn't be able to argue that it's very on brand for some companies to encourage people to run themselves into the ground via death march.
But sure, complain about people staying inside and using technology, on this video hosting website that people from all over the world are using to keep busy while they are stuck indoors. :P
@@FFKonoko This guy gets it. The prison system here is disgusting. To think that people with free will watching CZcams at home are "the real prisoners" *scary music* is an insanely pseudo intellectual thing to say. Been watching way too much black mirror.
@@badgerlordpatrick6493 Nah, the dystopian thing is calling ourselves the land of the free despite having the most prisoners per capita of any coutry by far.
“Busy inmates are well behaved inmates”. Sounds like something I read on my teacher training, but with some words replaced.
Well it's sort of what we learned in my teacher training, with some replaced word as
School is some sort of prison to me.
@Jake Sangria www.scoopwhoop.com/most-luxurious-prisons-in-the-world/ it look like it work for the more luxurious one, they have a feeling of lavish student accommodation. Notice all the black electronic gagets....
@@nejatolgunturk3702 well schools were actually built on the prison system. I learned that years ago in Criminal Justice in HS
Two things necessary to keep the poor at bay... food and entertainment.
On a strictly aesthetic note, a lot of this clear tech looks really cool. I'd buy consumer versions of them.
I think clear tech is cooler honestly. It’s really neat to see the machinery all assembled and in its proper place while you use a device. It’s particularly neat with stuff like cassette players and cassettes, where you can see the parts moving inside when you mess with the switches. You can really get a sense for _how_ it functions on a mechanical level.
He pulled out the yeezus tape💽
LMAOOO
L
😭💀
I was actually surprised that the cassette was created specifically for prisons, rather than just being the tape version of the album cover/CD version.
It wasn't made for prison use. It was just made like that. Look at the album for it.
I did 11 years. I literally had most of the tech in this video. Very cool. I had the clear tunes radio, the rca tv, and the koss cl-20 headphones. They had stopped selling the cassette tapes and tape players when I arrived. People were using the tape players to make tattoo machines. A lot of old school dudes still had them though. They were grandfathered in. Not every electronic appliance had to be clear though, at least not in Kansas. I can remember on two occasions when they sold nice radios with black cases. They were very highly sought after, but it usually wasn't long before they were removed from the approved commissary list. Eventually, they moved over to mp3 players and flat screen tvs. Now they have tablets that have built in mp3 players. The tablets are sold by a company called jpay. The tablets don't have internet or anything like that, but they have a music and book catalog loaded onto them. You just go to a kiosk at yard, plug it in, and download the music you purchased from the catalog. One other thing, most of the rca tvs in Kansas had speakers, but they were disconnected. When the tvs came to the facility, the property officer would open up the tv and disconnect the speakers, then seal the tv with a tamper seal so the officers could tell if an inmate had opened the tv. We used to bend open a paperclip and snake it into the side vents of the tv and connect the speaker wire with it. Very hard to do, but if you have years to do it .... I did roughly the same thing with my clear tunes radio, but essentially I made an aux plug for my mp3 player. One of the other cool pieces of tech I had, actually still have, is my old type writer. For about $300, you could buy a clear typewriter to do legal work or college stuff on. The thing is huge, weighs a ton, and is crazy loud. I might make a video with that typewriter. I really like that typewriter. Damn, this video has me all nostalgic. Thanks a bunch. Great video.
He did 11 years
@Jyles Prescott I took a pedophile out in the woods and shot him.
@John Joe no. I grew up in prison. My best friends are in prison. The tech is a part of that environment and kinda cool.
Im intrested now
@John Joe there were a lot of fights, some crazy stuff, some stupid stuff, some funny stuff. When I was in, I missed my family. Now that I'm out, I miss the stupid stuff. In the joint, all your friends get together and beat you up on your birthday. It's their way of making sure you're not getting weak. The fun part is, you never know when it's coming. Your buddies just jump out of nowhere and all hell breaks loose. It's a lot of fun. I miss stupid stuff like that.
I had the doubtful pleasure of staying at a Danish prison for 10 months back in 2017, and I also met this transparent technology. The flat screen TV was transparent, so was the remote. But instead of a cassette, I could listen to CDs via the TV which unfortunately didn't do Beethoven and Liszt much justice. Interesting to see the tablet for inmates. I'll definitely look into that - if it's a thing in Danish prisons now. Could be used to handle certain situations.
I've always thought prison electronics were pretty neat! Not only do they have history, but you can see the circuitry inside!
This is a great video and reminds me of a particular event in my life that I remember with some affection. During the late 90s first 2000s I was a DJ at a local radio station. In my show we received sms and phone calls where people could interact. We had a small but very close community. One day, I received a text from one of them telling me something like: "Thank you for the show, it really helped me to feel part of a community. Unfortunately I won't listen to it anymore since next week because I finally go back home after my time in jail". That guy was in a jail very far from his hometown. Since then I never thought my show could have been listened by inmates (only in that moment I realized that there were a very large jail not so far from our small town). I've been struck by many emotions and thanked the guy wishing him the best for his new future. Before that moment, doing a radio show for me was just about music, but since then it became more about people. Thank you again for this video and your very interesting channel.
That's a good story :)
That is a fucking GREAT story, it gets me right in the feels. Thank you for sharing it with us, and I hope you share it elsewhere too. Good stuff.
In prison music is a way to connect to the current world. It also takes you out of the place and to a better time. I sang and had books of song lyrics from blues to country to Adele. Still am called Radio by people.
Wholesome
Stellvia Hoenheim ooh I don’t think he cares
2:20 Tuna tin lids are sharp as a scalpel. I almost cut my thumb off in 1985 and still have the scar to this day! No tuna, just tunes!!!
I had a similar experience.
Not any more, at least here in Spain. They don't have sharp edges. I also had several cuts while opening them in the past but they are harmless nowadays.
The Florida Man who was arrested for sending bombs to various democrats in the US (MAGA Bomber) said he used to wear tuna can lids on his feet when he was a male strip dancer. He said he would use them to cut the other dancers if they were getting more tips than him. Ironically he will be enjoying music on clear cassette tapes for the next 20 years.
I have always found clear eletronic devices so aesthetically pleasing, crazy to know a bit of their backstory - so interesting! thank you so much
I have my own ClearTech cassette player from Urban Outfitters like shown in this video. It comes with clear earphones as well it’s pretty cool. Had no idea this is essentially what they had in prisons
Nintendo's smart. First make a prison Gameboy, then release it as a feature to the general public!
Wait for a fucking second. Was that the reason for the existence of the play it loud clear dmg?
I wonder if the clear gameboy was allowed.
I always thought the clear Game Boy looked like shit, but now i know why it exists in the first place.
Don't forget prison N64
@@AltimaNEO And if you got all your stars stolen in Mario Party, you could just choke the guy with the controller's cord.
I miss clear tech; there was a point in the 90s when nearly everything I owned was clear. I can still remember getting my first clear phone from one of those fund raiser prize catalogues that were popular at the time.
When I opened my bank accout I got a nice walkman style AM/FM radio that had a transparent case. Unfortunately i lost it but was working nicely.
clear tech is underrated. I once walked into a store, and saw a clear washing machine. I immediately asked if I can buy it, but they said it was for exhibition, not for sale =(((
JerryRigEverything approves.
I remember there being a "clear" fad in the early 1990's - not just phones and stuff, but soft drinks (Crystal pepsi!) dish soap, and in one odd case, Aamco premium gasoline was "clear", even though almost nobody would ever see it.
Always wanted a pair of the clear Bose 901s used as sales props. They sounded even worse than the regular 901s but they looked so cool..
For a short while I had what has to be one of the worst clear products ever.. A transparent Orange phone from Orange. The thing was huge and ugly but was very cheap. It somehow seemed to get a lot bigger and uglier though after I had brought it. :D
I respect him for having Yeezus on Cassette
UN-OPEND AS WELL
Shoutout to Yeezus
I was expecting the prison edition to be standard, tbh.
Same
I respect him even more for having: Paris - The devil made me do it. That some classic hip hop.
I work for a Koss dealer in the U.S. we sell the clear headphones to prisons. Our Koss sales rep was in the office for a meeting one day about 10 years ago. He explained to me that they had to switch out the Kevlar reinforced cables in all clear models because one had be used as garrote to strangle a person to death.
I have an inmate in my family... Those websites all went defunct in 2019 because at the start of 2019, corrections institutions across the nation switched to tablets for EVERYTHING. You do your phone calls on tablets. You get books to read on tablets. You get your music and television on tablets. You order your commissary order on tablets. Your mail gets scanned, and displays on the tablet. You need to see medical? Put a request in on the tablet. Need to speak to your lawyer? Chat with them on the tablet.
You can charge by the minute on tablets, and they double as cameras + listening devices in every cell, plus, they are basically tamper-proof, if you try to pry one open, the digitizer stops working, and you're busted.
You can't get a book in prison after 2019 - much less these devices.
How in hell is it legal to force prisoners to talk to their lawyers on a frigging government provided listening device?
@@MrGoatflakes because it's government and phones aren't much better
Yeah that wire tapping feature is illegal AF.Lawyers need to have privacy with thier clients and this completely violates that right.
@@TrentTheCreator you don't know how prison phones work????
Jesus fucking christ, man. Gotta love the U.S. prison system
Can prison PlayStations be jailbroken?
😏
Goteem!
Clever 😉😂
Fun fact: Here in Poland where I live, the prison regulations are not as strict as in the US, inmates are allowed to have almost unmodified retail game consoles - but they are not allowed to have WiFi. That's why the Xbox 360 is basically the most recent console you may see in a Polish prison, because that's the last one that you can easily remove the WiFi module from. If you happen to speak Polish, there is an interesting video about that here, search for "W jakie gry nie zagrasz, gdy trafisz do więzienia". And I also heard that prison gamepads usually have no vibration motors in them, as apparently inmates often scavenge them for makeshift tattooing machines.
@@kFY514 just reading your comment as you posted it just "16 seconds ago" lol
In my state of Missouri at least, one of those little clear tvs are ~$200. When you add the context of the average Missouri prisoner being paid about $8 a month, the $200 price becomes astronomical.
That's why most prisoners have a hustle. Doing laundry for others, sewing things up, running a store, holding items for people, or tattooing ect. You can make some pretty serious money on the yard if done right. You can even get a cell phone for 400 to 600 bucks depending on how nice it is.
Source - I was in prison for a while in the US.
@@Radtastical yeah no shit. I'm speaking on the way things are "supposed" to be.
Source - me too
My friend Bill is an inmate. He has a tablet with email and mp3 music. They buy song files and download them at a security check point. They have to doc with them to ensure the device is not hacked and to download or upload emails. Also to clarify ( I explained this video to Bill) Skullcandy clear headphones are the ones of choice because they dont break as easy as other models.
Wow email, really? I never went to prison (only jail, which is stricter in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to the gadgets you can have). Being able to email people would've made the time go by much faster.
For a while, prisons allowed CDs. Now, however, most have moved on to MP3 players. The reason for this is that inmates were removing the motors from the CD players to make tattoo equipment. As MP3 players have no motors, that negated that problem.
Of course wouldn’t want prisoners to make a living doing tattoos which is a transferable skill for when they get out.
@@casedistorted prison tattoos are fought on many basic sound principles. Firstly they are used for the sake of gangs which both increases violence and segregation in prisons and reduces rehabilitation outside of prison. Second, tattoos require quite intense disinfection on machinery and on skin after exposure, none of these are things prisoners are effective at doing making it so tattoos are vectors for serious diseases like hepatitis. There’s little benefit to allowing tattoos in prisons
Not to mention that they can break the CDs and use them as weapons
Wow!
@@casedistorted Right 😒
This was genuinely interesting. I hadn't even thought that the American prison system demands people to use screwless, see-through electronics.
TheTomimt it’s the same in the uk
@camjamsdad here in Finland I'd be using pretty much standard tech.
There a few devices that can use screws, but you have to show the prison system that sonic/thermal welds are sufficient in the construction, like the TVs.
@@TheTomimt thats because Fins are passive pussies who dont resist their governemnt over stepping there boundaries
ZepTepi yeah let’s glorify the shitty behavior that gets people in prison in the first place! Yay violence and intolerance!
I'd like to add that cassettes are still used by lots of underground music bands without any connection to prison inmates or US penal system. Just cause it's cheap and easier to record.
Because Hipsters
Hipsters should be in prison for releasing criminal records on cassette.
yep cheap using type 1 tape with no dts.
I actually LOVE clear electronics, they were big in the 80's. My clear radio walkman had extra LEDs inside that you could turn on and looked super cool at night in the dark lying in bed listening to music and wake up with ear-phones wrapped around your kneck
I love that clear tech, I wish it was still in vogue. I had a clear telephone in my room as a kid and even though I never used it I loved having it to see all the cool wires and stuff inside.
I worked as a studio photographer in the early 2000s. One of our main clients was a prison commissary catalog. I spent many hours shooting clear walkmans, TVs, and tins of oysters (yuck!). Great video. Thanks!
I buy tins of smoked oysters. They're pretty good
sounds like a very interesting job experience!!
My friend who was in maximum security last year had to have cassettes still. Once he got to a lower level of risk he was able to get cds
I bet a CD makes a fine shank. Guys who dress normal probably do too.
@@TheBigMclargehuge No but you can scrape an edge on a side of a shard (by rubbing it on concrete) and then tie/tape it to a stick like object such as a toothbrush and make something that can slice skin. Stabbing with it would just break it.
@Nigel Cam 🤣🤣
Mate I still use cassettes in my 2006 Toyota Camry because the CD player is broke
@@DarkAvatar1313 that's what I was thinking you can break it into pieces and get a nice point and tape it to something. A cross dresser could probably do it too
This is a wonderful channel. Thank you for all the great vids. I came for the dash cam reviews and stayed for everything else.
I got a hiteker flatscreen prison TV at a yardsale and it's the most durrable travel monitor I've ever owned. Thing's indestructible.
Good for dropping on your prison enemies from the 2nd floor
when I was growing up in the 90s everything was clear. but like clear purple.
i'm still happy that third party manufacturers use clear plastic for joycon shells and stuff. looks gorgeous
Yeah, there were definitely a few N64's like that.
So, if Action 52 for the NES wasn't meant for prisons, then why was THAT thing's cartridge clear? XD
Atomic purple n64 gang
Everyone coveted that clear phone. Clear gameboy was cool, too
my sister had a clear purple Gameboy advance haha and I had a clear Gameboy. I also had a clear orange phone lol
The US: We have so many people in prison that we release music formats specifically for prison.
The US has the highest prisoner per capita in the world. This is caused in part by the privatization of prisons in America. Prisons operate on a for-profit basis in the US, and the companies that run them definitely lobby the government to increase the amount of people they send to prison. Hell, some places have prisoner quotas that must be fulfilled.
@@sudonim7552 Your not wrong, far from it in fact. But ultimately. some folks *are* going to have to spend some time in there unless you're part of my school of harsh justice.
Keeping people entertained keeps them from going completely insane, so we'd still have a market for things like this, even if that market was much smaller.
Well cassettes have existed for years
@@sudonim7552 Exactly...its why we (federal government) raged a "war on drugs" for nearly thirty years putting people with health issues in cages. Fortunately the drugs are winning that war, which is entirely inevitable due to human nature.
@rustybuttpate imagine being this much of a bootlicker
As someone who was once in prison with Cassettes, we NEVER had players that were that big. Maybe in a group room or something they would have something that big, but inmates have/had walkman sized players.
Prison tech is the perfect tech for teaching about electronics. Such a cool concept that I wish we had more of in the market place.
My late grandfather had a clear TV that my mom was holding onto. I never knew why it was clear, but he indeed was in prison, so it all sorta makes sense now.
Did he manage to take a TV from prison? What a chad
@@izperehoda it was technically his own property. He bought it. So obviously they could take it home.
@@TankswillRule yeah forgot about that. Still pretty cool
So you come from a long line of crims lol
You can see this as a success story. A man goes to prison, but is well behaved. Saves his pennies and buys a cheap TV from the prison shop. Leaves prison as a rehabilitated person and everyone lives happily ever after. Don't forget that a large proportion of people in Australia are descended from convicts. It's nothing to be ashamed of. People can improve their lives after making a bad decision or two.
I honestly had no idea this stuff existed. Makes sense though. Very interesting episode, Mat, but then I like all your posts.
Bob Holt EBay is filled with them. First noticed it three years ago when I was hunting for a used Sony Trinitron.
@Jake Sangria My dad still has his clear tv , they let you keep it because they make you pay for it so it's yours, I remember watching videos on it as a kid, even then I knew where it came from.
If you ever watch any of those real life prison type shows they feature tech like this in the prison cells. The TV’s are the most obvious examples.
How did this guy comment 1 day ago when the video is 3 hours old?
@@Macho_Fagito I'm a Patreon so we see them a little ahead of everyone else.
A few things to note as an ex prisoner.
We have clear flatscreens in the pen now, and they had to recall a bunch of the tablets, because we found out a way to hack them and get online with them. And if the place you're in is private, then sometimes in the incentive (good boy) pod they will have legit game systems yall can share but there's just no online play and that is usually the exception not the rule, obviously.
Glad I was recommended your channel, I can listen to you speak about tech all day. Thanks!
I miss clear electronics.
I wasn't in prison, I just enjoyed the short lived fad that let us view conponents and gave a sense of seeing how thing worked or, at least, how they were built.
I know the light isn't good for some components, but I'd still enjoy carrying my technology in its tinted clear housing with its clear accessories.
Hotaru I had two transparent green PS1 joysticks that I really enjoyed
I wish everything was almost transparent for at least 12 hours... And I mean everything.
Yeah, I adored my old GBC with the clear cases.
@@Ray-mw1fx no not my clothes lol
i have two transparent xbox 360 controllers :)
can't have a CD, can have a TV with large glass parts, massive plastic sections and a really high voltage generator......
That thing cost like $100 and it was your only window to the outside world. Why would you intentionally destroy it?
Yeah the mains capacitor if zapped with the right sort of wrong polarity would make a lovely bang and then snowfall of lovely burning electrolyte, we used to blow them up down the scrapyard I worked at, just fed the wrong way round a truck battery into 'em and they were pretty cool mini explosives :D
@@dodgydruid FBI
It's probably easier to spot when that gets destroyed to be used as a weapon, rather than one of many (relatively) small CDs. :)
Also, I bet the TVs would be bolted into place, and it'd be difficult to open up without the right tools.
@@FiXato they use tamperproof screws
Im waiting for the day prison gaming rigs are made
I had a clear telephone when I was in High School, in the 90's, and I like clear things, so this is an awesome video to me! I would Love to have the clear TV for my den. I collect retro stuff. It would make a cute fish tank, if you could fit it out for that. I know it has holes in it but those could be sealed. Thanks for sharing!
Imagine getting released from prison now, and being told that you still couldn't go anywhere.
I got out two years ago after doing 11 years. Even though I've been out for a while, that statement hits home.
I love how everyone acts like prisoners are completely cut off from society. Really dense.
@@sandtanmaroon I mean... they *literally* are
I had a friend that did 4 years in the US. He always had his radio hanging in his neck with a handmade leather case. Never occurred to me that the fact it was clear was for this exact reason.
the other thing that your friend did not tell you was the fact that the leather case was made from the severed foreskins of snitches and stool pidgeons.
@@angrycatowner I'm pretty sure that was cow leather from the craft workshop, but they put a double bottom so he could hide stuff inside
I really like these transparent tech. You can see what is inside of it and how does it work. Great video!I would have never imagined these things were, like, a thing. Really great to know that!
I'm pretty glad that the cassette tape industry is kept alive, hope it continues. One of the saddest things about the free market is the death of productions or media formats due to lack of consumer base
they dont sell cassette in prsion anymore. now its andorid tablits. however they have been making a little comback in the market.
I really sympathize with the families that had to deal with the rather arbitrary rules for getting media to inmates. I worked at an independent record store in the 90's in Arizona. We had a binder for most of the prisons and jails in the state with their various procedures (out of state wasn't recommended, but we'd guess if people insisted). As I remember cassettes didn't have to be clear, but they did have to be factory sealed. We sold used media as well, but that was right out. We did the shipping as well. Even with following all the procedures, it was super common for the package to never reach the inmate. I always told people that we couldn't guarantee that what they sent would get to the person they were sending it to. It's like it went into some kind of black box and sometimes it came out the end and other times it didn't, but you never knew why. I'm sure some of it inadvertently violated some rule, but it seemed more like staff were just taking things. My wife worked at Barnes and Noble, and she told me about a couple that kept trying to send the same Harley Davidson coffee table book to their son. After the 3rd or 4th time she convinced them to stop trying, but they'd already wasted over $100.
That sounds like hell for the families. I'm sure if the items were not being stolen they were being thrown away as some form of contraband
Somewhere, a former prison guard has four copies of a Harley Davidson coffee table book on their shelf. People like to see prisoners made to suffer - it appeases that human impulse towards sadism that we like to pretend is a sense of justice. If we cheer for inflicting pain and misery on 'bad people,' that proves we are good people
Welcome to America. Your human rights are invalidated as soon as someone else says so.
@@Porygonal64 Human rights? Gurl, the people that need to observe human rights the most are the least likely to do so, and that ain't the U.S. in a far shot, even with all of its flaws taken into account. Don't peddle emotions as facts.
_Try a week in mexican jail. That'll cure your whistle's tune about who grants a more humanitarian treatment._
@@Porygonal64 Welcome to the world were America is half-way decent compared to most of it. Sorry man, but go see what prison is like in Russia, or most South American countries or even better, China before you complain. Also if you commit a crime, then you kinda forgo your rights. Now you cane make that there are too many victimless crimes that can land you in jail and and I would agree with you but once again, this isn't just an issue in America.
While not perfect, the good ol USA is a better place to live then most other countries.
A little more than ten years ago I went to a prision in Spain as a computer technician to repair, well, a computer, and they were very special too: a single unit including keyboard and touchscreen instead of mouse (remember, this was before the "touch revolution"), the idea was not to have any detachable parts, and the casing was solid metal, very sturdy and heavy. They were also very cramped inside and a pain in the ass to work with (at least the screens were flat panels), and as far as I know they were for staff use, not for the inmates.
Similar units were used in public libraries, they were more conventional, with normal mouse and keyboards, but the same sturdy metal cases (wich says something about the expected use and abuse from the users 😁).
I have seen the same kind of metallic “Institutional” metallic keyboards with a mouse included. But they were used in shopping malls for info stations until they changed them for touch screens.
@@Nolroa Yeah, I remember those too.
@@Nolroa they had exactly the same look and feel as the keypad on a pay phone.
Imagine a guy using a mouse cable to choke another inmate. I see why they hadn't mice there
You never know what those ruffians at the library are capable of.
RCA transitioned to Thomson many decades ago. Interestingly, people still call the abandoned property "the old RCA plant" even though people were working for Thomson. Western Select also had a very large plant here in Indianapolis that made the classic telephone for AT&T. What is left is the TTE plant in the suburbs outside of Indianapolis where employees are paid a fraction of the wages as nonunion workers.
Your channel is amazing, wonderful content - brilliantly presented.
you should have a TV show
3:49 another fact about that Kanye West album cassette release is that he has a cousin in his similar age in prison that he visits some times.
Is it the same one that he refers to in TLOP, the one that stole his laptop?
@@cumfastdieyoung No that was a different cousin.
Yeah he's got a double life sentence from when he was 17
Dr. Magneto just called. He asked to get back his cassette recorder and tapes.
That cassette on the left. Paris: The Devil Made Me Do It. Great album , great lyricist. Noice!👌
hah, "Parental Advisory"......on a cassette for prisons, mhm okay
Adam Bartlett that’s the US prison system for you
Bodies being ripped apart is not a problem, but try to utter the word cunt in the US.....
@@Real_Retrophilia It is great fun!
We take the impressionable minds of our listeners seriously, won't want to teach them any naughty words
There are kids and teens that go to prison and juvie
A had a cellmate that modded the radios, he made a power adapter for it and had an outlet under his bunk, ran a relatively thick (considering it was made from old headphone wires) twisted copper wire up the wall and made funnel cones to put on the earbuds. The funnels were mostly paper ones because the guards would take them (most thought that was why it was loud), but he had a set of cardboard ones from the backs of notepads that were much louder.
Thanks for CLEARING this up
This is weirdly aesthetically pleasing. I will now search eBay
I used to have a family friend who spent 3 years in prison relatively recently (2012-2015) and he described being issued a combination payphone/mp3 player and (extremely limited) internet browser. He would call relentlessly asking for more money to buy more music for the player, in fact he called so much that his girlfriend (who framed him) eventually gave each member of our family $40 cash to say "thank you" for putting up with him.
Wtf? The casual "who framed him" ...
@@trulyUnAssuming Not relevant to the story. If you want the details, She was into meth. He wasn`t. She wanted custody of the kids. He had it. She planted meth in his jacket before going out for a night on the town before calling the cops and tipping them off. He was arrested New Years eve 2012 in my driveway.
Andrew Dubya yikes man. Sorry to hear that happened.
@@andrewdubya1380 has she been raped to death yet
Indeed, a very important therapy for those incarcerated. I served those same years in prison for extracting DMT from tree bark, and my (jpay player) ended up with $800. of jp-3's (mp-3's) equaling 205 songs, thanks to my friends & family. ~ Props!
As always I love watching ur Videos plz keep up the awesome work.
It just love how cool transparent tech looks!
So Pepsi crystal, they made just for the prisoners I’m I right ?
Am I rigth* uwu
@@Emiliano_Toledo please no
@@zacri9434 UWU
@@zacri9434 u w u
You mean crystal meth?
Hey Techmoan, i'm not proud to say but as of last year they still had radio/cassette walkmen in the american justice system... i'll tell you what brother there was quite a few tapes floating around in there, off the top of my head the most sought after was some very old releases of "DMX - It's dark and hell is hot" along with "Guns N Roses - Lies" there was a old cassette binder with at least 50 or so tapes you could rent out of the library.
Also im surprised you didnt mention how the walkmen were also made into very good Tattoo Guns, you would use the fast forward along with a rigged up syringe tip and the inmate made some pretty incredible tattoos for the situation and what gear they had to make it happan.
I kinda wanna see some of those prison tattoos now
ericbazinga A tattoo artist I used to go to had told me that if it’s a person who knows what they’re doing, it doesn’t really matter what materials they use as long as it’s actually stuff you can do a tattoo with. I asked him after seeing someone who said theirs were done with some kind of ink and a guitar string.
A common setup that I saw would use the wire from a bread tie which was guided by a ball point pen cartridge tube and a CD player motor stolen from a library CD player. I had to repair one for a guy when his wires had come undone and he didn't understand electricity and he just twisted them all together...lol
@@ericbazinga Because of the the simplicity of the gun, a distinguishing feature of prison tattoo work is that it's always single needle, so they can be very detailed if the artist is actually good.
Nicholas G What were you in for? Piracy? 😉
When I saw that TV and saw the inside of it my jaw was in the floor
I’m a big retro technology fan so seeing all of these devices see through and seeing the insides blown my mind
In UK prisons there are similar rules. Inmates can earn the privilege of having a TV in their cell. It is a small flat-screen (roughly 12-14") with a transparent case, specially made for the purpose.
In the prison I was in, all cells had a television, although it could be removed if you were naughty!
At least they're transparent about the fact that it's garbage.
That was an underappreciated joke.
🥁 💥
I remember paying $40 for a shitty pocket radio in prison that probably cost $1 to produce, almost everything in prison is sold at a ridiculous mark up.
Institutionally sanctioned monopolies baby!!!
The government’s food budget for prisoners is 18 cents a meal, I forget what they charge the prisoners for them though.
@@cavejohnson4306 I'm pretty sure they don't charge for meals. Commissary items, like chips, cookies, and other snacks are sold for cash.
An interesting study would be to have recently released long-term inmates listen to digital audio and look at the differences. If all they heard were cassettes, I think it would be a pretty big shock to hear compress digital formats. Most people meet the transition. Very gradually, I imagine the sudden transition would have some interesting findings
About the clear plastic tv, (DTV,) I was shopping in the SAVERS Thrift Store in La Mirada California.
I found a nineteen inch analogue looking tv, that had a digital tuner. It looked like a regular big tube tv. I tested it at the thrift store, with a rabbit ear antennae. I got it to scan 170 channels.
The sound was stereo. It only cost me $14.99.
Now the line “I don’t remember what happened to that guy, I think he went to prison” from the videophone episode makes sense 😂
In Australia the TV's were in a cement enclosure in the top corner of the room with a thick perspex front. There was no way to actually access the physical set at all. They didn't bother with clear TV's, they just used regular TV's as far as i can tell. The radio was part of the intercom panel on the wall, which was a stainless flat panel with buttons on it.
It seems like they thought ours out better, not hugely surprising, our whole country was originally a prison, lol
We have clear tvs like in this video in MAP and Ravenhall in Melbourne, unless you’re in the hole then it’s as you describe.
Edit: we had clear flatscreen tvs, not crt like the vid
People I know who went to jail say they use TVs to light cigarettes . I don't know how. Prisoners sure are resourceful!
A prison in the way Escape From New York was a prison
It depends on what year the prison was built. Our complex has two buildings. One built in the 1970s and another in the 1990s. They are very different from eachother and are totally dofferent from the new prison built in 2010 over 100 miles away were they have tablets built into the walls.
Yeah, but in America, we found a way to make each inmate PAY for tv and radio!!!
Didn’t plan on spending 17 minutes of my life learning about prison technology, yet here we are
I know in michigan you could get the liner with your cassette. They started with clear mp3 players about 2011-2012. The cassette players were just like a walkman. You'd order them through a cassette book. They also have clear headphones. They also went from crt tvs to flat screens. The old and new tvs have a redish/pinkish hue to them.
They also had real wooden acoustic guitars amd real electric guitars avaliable to buy.
*designed to look unimpressive*
"This would make a great collector's item"
I’d imagine they’re only impressive outside the prison system solely because they are made for prison.
@@amfram, nope, they're also impressive because you can see the components inside.
[see windowed RGB gaming pc cases]
So what you're saying is Nintendo was breeding future inmates with their transparent N64s?
Transparent Gameboys as well
How about those transparent Macs
@@AR-zq9hq I have one of those clear purple "Gameboy Color" handhelds somewhere, I was thinking about it during this video.
Now I'm wondering if they ever sold transparent N64s to inmates. Although now that I think of it they'd have to have transparent cartridges too
Its a conspiracy that makes me wanna tinkle. Oh wait.. its pepsi max
Always takes me back to the 90s when I see this stuff. Some genius figured out if you made it colorful, kids would love it. Next thing you know Mac has made it trendy lol.
This was what all there was back in the day when I was locked up now days they have a lot more brings back a lot of memories wow
Just imagine. A gamer going to prison in 2010, he usually gets 30 FPS. Gets out of prison and comes back to +300fps and 300hz monitors in 2020.
NonLegit Nation Interesting!
@NonLegit Nation damn bro. What did you do that had you locked up 11 years.. okay that may be inappropriate. But anyways, enjoy the world of new tech!
@NonLegit Nation they A+ certification is BS though. A lot of useless stuff but I keep one for reference in the shop well as the network and security ones lol.
Prison should be reserved for violent offenders. Also it's awful that criminal records harm people forever. How do they expect anyone to improve their lives if they are blacklisted from good jobs for the rest of their lives? I can understand that with violent or sexual crimes not wanting those people to get hired in the wrong place, but there are a lot of nonviolent drug offenders in prison.
I know plenty of people that would be felons if they'd been pulled over on the wrong day and some of those people now have great jobs. It's a joke.
@NonLegit Nation damn same specs are my build only differences is i have a 3600x and a regular 2070 and my ram speed is 3200 but same gb lol
Interesting that they allowed CRTs considering now dangerous they are when opened.
I recently had to gut one. The sheer amount of "do not touch these with an 11 foot pole" posts were amazing. Luckily I took it apart without any problem.
@@ThreeEyedFish They're only dangerous when powered.
@@AureliusR yeah, but there is definitely a fair amount of wives tales to make someone paranoid while prepping to gut it.
@@AureliusR As far as I know they have really big capacitors inside which can potentially store enough energy to kill you even after you unplug them.
@@tand0r That's very unlikely, they have bleeder resistors across them. You'd have to unplug it from the wall and then touch it within like a minute or two to get a zap.
I've never been in prison (thankfully), but I have seen modified electronic devices for use in schools, colleges and such. For example, TV/VCR combi units and cassette players where the speakers have been disconnected and the record button disabled. Not to mention the devices being anchored with heavy duty metal bars and padlocks to prevent anyone stealing them!
Having worked as a corrections officer, prisoners absolutely would break a CD and sharpen it for use as a weapon.
But the knives in the kitchen are perfectly safe? Hell even a cassette has 300 ft of rope
@@youknowJP I was incarcerated for 2 years.
When I started working in the kichen, we had knives, but it was chained to a wall. So if you wanted to chop up chicken, you had to walk over to the "cutting station".
@@jackiechan_wtf4041 I've always been so curious how that all works since I've been in the industry since I was 16
@@jackiechan_wtf4041 "hey man, i need your help over by the cut station. Can you walk over there with me, and the knives?"
Fear a lot?
I work in a prison in the UK and they have the clear flatscreen TVs. Most other electronics in cells are no longer clear, though! Must be a throwback to when everything had to be clear! Great video as always!
I guess things are a lot more strict over in the US
In Georgia our radios and cd players were regular ones not clear. Family or friends could bring it in an unopened package. Now they allow mp3 players. This was many years ago.
i've seen uk prisons on the inside from whatsapp videos. place is butlins for them. not even funny. phones, electronics, drugs, porn, whatever they want. a failure of a prison system. many have it better on the inside than the outside so hardly a deterrent. sort it out
@@CZcamsSupportTeams Harsh prisons don't actually deter jack shit. It's been proven time and time again. It's just cruelty for the sake of cruelty.
@@CZcamsSupportTeams Oh give it a rest .They're IN PRISON.Often locked in a small room with one and often two others for 23 hours out of 24.Apart from the confinement and lack of freedom , prisons are extremely dangerous.Not a holiday camp.
Just realized who JerryRigEverything's target audience is
And TheLockpickingLawyer
ericbazinga lmfaoooooo
@@ericbazinga uP
@@ericbazinga well that one was obvious. Guy is a fucking thief and a thief-enabler
@@Brib8888 lawyers can be thieves mate
I loved watching this channel, but quite a few years ago a made some bad mistakes and ended up in prison lol. I get out, and see that you’ve made a video on prison electronics! Lmao how nice
Tf your handle is from boondocks and you went to prison is peak irony.
@@michaelbread5906 woulda been funnier if my name was Riley 😂 that mf was always off the chain