By Raul DIEGO

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is coming under fire again from Democratic lawmakers, as well as from the American Postal Workers Union, who are calling for President Joe Biden to pave the way for DeJoy’s removal after the Trump-appointee announced higher mailing fees and logistical changes that could further slow down mail. The US Postal Service (USPS) has already suffered a more than 50% drop in on-time arrivals for first-class mail deliveries, according to the service’s own data.

Nevertheless, thanks to the ubiquitous presence of high-speed internet, the personal communications of most Americans don’t seem to be fundamentally affected by the problems at USPS. Excluding the mail-in-ballots controversy leading up to the 2020 presidential election, the majority of the country remains little more than a curious spectator in what seems to be the inevitable demise of legacy long-distance message-carrying methods in the midst of a blossoming technological wonderland.

But, at least one key American demographic could well prove to be the canary in the coal mine in terms of the implications of a fully digitized mail system. The 2.3 million people currently incarcerated in America’s prison systems could be on the verge of altogether losing the privilege of receiving physical mail from friends and family if the Biden administration does nothing to stop the growing trend of handing over prison mail operations to companies like Smart Communications and its “Postal Mail Elimination” services.

A long-running problem

Promising to do away with the “longest running problems and security loopholes” of America’s prison mail systems, the privately-held corporation offers a ‘free’ service called MailGuard to state corrections facilities and county jails across the country.

MailGuard “filters” physical mail sent to inmates and delivers electronic versions to the prisoners via their proprietary SmartTablet or SmartKiosk platforms, according to Smart Communications’s website.

Among the most troubling issues surrounding such technologies is the risk they pose to prisoners’ Sixth Amendment right to carry on confidential communications with their legal counsel. In addition, the fees associated with the use of these services for inmates can constitute a violation of federal laws, which permit prisoners to send legal correspondence “regardless of their ability to pay for postage.”

Both DeJoy’s machinations at the USPS and the rise of private corporations offering to parse and deliver mail to prisoners via tablets and other costly hardware undermine the critical role physical mail plays in the life of the inmate population. And these developments also raise serious questions about corporate profiteering at the expense of American prisoners and taxpayers.

The Lawrence County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department recently closed a deal with one of the biggest players in this space, Securus Technologies, to furnish “JP6S tablets” to its 150 inmates. The tablets are being touted to the public as a way to offer “new communications and entertainment options, as well as free education and re-entry tools to help prepare [prisoners] for their release,” a service the jailed individuals can access through a “low-cost monthly” subscription.

Securus Technologies has been the target of civil rights activists like Bianca Tylek — founder of Worth Rises, a prisoner advocacy organization that seeks to dismantle “the prison industry” – who was “unimpressed” with Securus’s recent moves to address criticism over price-gouging and other exploitative practices against prisoners who are compelled to use their services to communicate with the outside world.

Acquired by a Beverly Hills private equity firm called Platinum Equities four years ago, the company has been known to charge up to $1 a minute for calls from prison, except in New York City where the cost was transferred to taxpayers.

Los Angeles billionaire and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, who heads Platinum Equities, seems oddly sheepish about the relentless focus on his corporate assets by prison reform activists. Speaking on the controversy just a few weeks ago, Gores told The Detroit Free Press that although he would “get killed for saying this,” the prison communications industry should be the purview of nonprofits rather than of private interests.

The tech prison transition

That transition from for-profit to nonprofit seems to be exactly what is happening. A nonprofit backed by Twitter mogul Jack Dorsey, Google, and Schmidt Futures (Eric Schmidt’s philanthropic venture), among others, launched the Ameelio app less than a year ago to “disrupt the prison phone industry,” as it was described in a recent interview with the organization’s founder and Yale Law graduate, Uzoma “Zo” Orchingwa.

Ameelio is currently piloting with four states and plans to take over some of the services currently offered via predatory contract models, like those of Securus. Ameelio does not, however, solve the privacy problem nor does it completely eliminate the opportunities for financial exploitation of prisoners. In fact, it may simply open the door for far more sophisticated models, such as social impact bonds (SIB).

The concept behind social impact bonds requires a fully digital ecosystem that can track and aggregate data on individuals who are a part of any kind of state or municipal service such as prisons. With such pervasive tracking, a subject’s progression through that system can be measured and linked to milestones tied to financial instruments, which investors (or stakeholders) can hold, buy or sell on the open market.

Known as stakeholder capitalism, this new form of exploitation is already being tested in many places around the world and prisons are among the main targets for its implementation, as they provide an ideal and literally captive market for its proof of concept.

Alison McDowell’s pioneering independent research on this topic has exposed many of the insidious ways in which pay-for-success schemes like SIBs and other human capital market ideas are being foisted onto America’s public education and healthcare systems through the “gamification” of schooling and health pathways.

Ameelio is set on gamifying inmates’ experience both inside the prison and in their outer-world interactions with “a variety of mental health-related content as well,… pre-designed content we developed ourselves, like crosswords, games and an article feature,” which, Orchingwa explains, allows relatives or friends to “include a link and we convert the news article into a letter that’s sent to their loved ones to keep them engaged with what’s going on in the world.”

Ameelio has also partnered with approximately 30 criminal justice organizations to facilitate communication with their clients, as well as a video conferencing platform called Northstar scheduled to launch in April 2021, which will practically complete the digital takeover of prison dynamics.

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America’s first Postmaster-General, Benjamin Franklin, considered the postal service to be a glue that held the thirteen American colonies of Britain together as they transitioned into the United States of America.

Trump’s aggression against the constitutionally-protected USPS is partly an attempt to move to privatization of the USPS, which is what occurred with Britain’s Royal Mail in 2013, thanks to a decision by the Conservative government. Trump’s political base includes a number of far right-wing “sovereign citizens,” who do not recognize the authority or jurisdiction of the USPS to transport mail and set postal rates, making the postal system a favorite target for the sovereign citizens movement and associated libertarians.

Even as the world relies more and more on electronic mail and digital distribution of information, nations continue to maintain their issuance of postage stamps by public, private, or hybrid postal authorities. FedEx, UPS, or DHL shipping labels do not convey a spirit of national sovereignty. Postage stamps, first-day covers, and other philatelic instruments are what help to instill pride by citizens in their nations. The European Union may have switched from national currencies to the Euro, but member states continued to maintain their separate postal systems that issued their own stamps.

Iceland stopped printing new postage stamps because digital communications reduced demand. However, Iceland, which has a rich postal history, is maintaining its current stockpile of postage stamps and not eliminating them. In 2012, when there were calls to eliminate the production of postage stamps in Israel due to the domination of digital communications, the head of the Israeli Philatelic Service said what is on the minds of every postal employee and people around the world, “A stamp has the same status as a currency bill, the flag or the national anthem. It is an indicator of national sovereignty that must be protected.” Stamps also shed light on the political and social issues of the most concern to a nation’s or territory’s government and population.

In January 1863, the requirement of the Italian postal authorities that mail originating in the independent Republic of San Marino, an enclave surrounded by Italy, have affixed on letters Italian postage stamps when sent into Italy. The first postal treaty between Italy and San Marino required San Marino mail to carry Italian stamps. However, the Sammarinese authorities date-cancelled Italian stamps with blue ink the following: “REPUBLIC OF SEAN MARINO.” Blue is the national color of San Marino. The Italian postal authorities objected to the San Marino cancellation stamp and claimed the blue ink corroded the Italian postage stamps. The bickering between San Marino and Italy resulted in a new Sammarinese-Italian treaty in 1877 that permitted San Marino to issue its own postage stamps. The separate San Marino postal service was a critical element in the republic’s de facto, as well as de jure, independence from Italy.

Far from being a pejorative, the term “postage stamp” country has been used to describe ministates like San Marino, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Vatican City, and even extraterritorial properties of the United Nations in New York and Geneva and the Sovereign Order of Malta in Rome. Yet, it is precisely because these political entities maintain their own postal systems that adds to their legitimacy as sovereignties.

The Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey maintain their own postal systems as a way of declaring to the rest of the world that they are not part of the United Kingdom but self-governing crown dependencies of the British Queen.

Conversely, when a postal system is constrained or marginalized, there is a direct correlation to loss of sovereignty. The Oslo Accords afforded the Palestinian Authority the opportunity to create its own postal system. However, Israel’s constant pressure to limit Palestinian authority resulted in Palestinian postage stamps being required to include “Palestinian Council” or “Palestinian Authority” as the country description. Israel protested when the first Palestinian stamps were issued in 1994 and the Palestinians were forced to overprint their stamps with Jordanian currency values. Initially, Israel did not recognize Palestinian stamps, which were only recognized by other members of the Arab League. Israeli and American pressure on the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which did not admit Palestine as a member state, also hindered the effectiveness of the Palestinian postal authority. In 2009, when administration of Palestine was split between the West Bank and Gaza, both entities began issuing their own stamps, with only those authorized by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah being recognized internationally. The two separate postal authorities diminished Palestine’s de jure and de facto sovereignty as stipulated by the Oslo Accords.

One of the reasons why the United States government prevents various tribal nations, with which the U.S. signed international treaties, from establishing separate postal authorities is that such a move would help convey actual sovereignty to these alleged “sovereign” nations. The United States continues to restrain the independence of three former U.S. Trust Territories in the Pacific – the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau – by maintaining de facto control over their postal systems.

Postal authority and the issue of sovereignty have served to inflame tensions between China and Vietnam over the ownership of the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea. In 2016, Vietnam protested China issuing stamps commemorating the “70th anniversary of the recovery” of the Spratly and Paracel Islands. The Chinese stamps depicted five lighthouses constructed by China on five Spratly Island reefs, which Vietnam claim as Truong Sa. One of the first acts after the United States withdrew from the Vietnam conflict was China occupying the Paracel Islands. Vietnam believes that postal authority is synonymous with sovereignty. In 2014, Vietnam opened up two post offices on Sin h Ton Island and Truong Sa Island in the Spratly archipelago. China established a post office on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago to reinforce its claim to the island.

In 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British territory, one of the first acts of the Argentine government was to secure the post office in Port Stanley, the Falklands capital. The Argentine postal personnel began cancelling Falklands mail with “Republica Argentina.” However, the UPU does not recognize foreign cachet cancellations on stamps and such mail sent from the Falklands was rejected and returned by the postal authorities of other countries. Thereafter, Argentine postal authorities on the Falklands began using their own stamps until British forces re-captured the islands. After the Argentine occupation of the Falklands, letters or packages sent to the “Falkland Islands” via Buenos Aires were returned by Argentine postal authorities with the following cachet: “Return to sender. Postal services to the Falkland Islands/ Islas Malvinas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands have been interrupted due to the illegitimate occupation of these islands by Great Britain. These islands form part of the territory of the Republic of Argentina and are subject to her sovereignty.” Even in wartime postal authority over territory holds both a strategic and tactical advantage.

The attack on the U.S. Postal Service by the Trump administration is, in effect, a peacetime attack on the national sovereignty of the United States.