Man Released From Prison After 37 Years Baffled by Smartphones
Last year at least 18 U.S. states began releasing prisoners close to the ends of their sentences or elderly/medically vulnerable prisoners at greater risk of contracting Covid-19, reports NBC News. So after 37 years in prison, Renaldo Hudson was in for a surprise: He was handed a Samsung smartphone, a piece of technology that wouldn't have been imaginable to an American in 1983. "People would say things like they were so simple." said Hudson, 57. "'Listen, go to your browser and open this up.' I'm like, 'Who is the browser?'" Hudson, like many people who leave prison after lengthy sentences, quickly realized he had entered a new world, one dependent on technology and innovation. The challenge he faced has been amplified in the past year as the Covid-19 pandemic has driven many more parts of life online. Many of the social services and job programs that former prisoners rely on to successfully re-enter their communities are inaccessible without a comprehensive knowledge of the internet. Advocates say that's an issue that can be overlooked by organizations meant to help, and former inmates sometimes struggle to adapt to decades of technological innovations that passed them by while they served time. In 1983, when Hudson was imprisoned, cellular phones weighed about 2 pounds and were larger than bricks... There are essential services many prisoners returning home need access to immediately, like health insurance, food stamps, medical care, job opportunities and state-issued identification. Before the pandemic, people could physically go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a social services office or a staffing agency. Now, everything is online, and the obstacles in the way of gaining access to those services are far greater. The article reports that Hudson has now also discovered the internet. "It connected me to the world on a level that I couldn't have imagined."
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