Reading this just moments after shredding a prison map, putting a failed product attempt of mine on the shelf.
The idea was to provide a texting kiosk for prisoners to SMS friends and family.
Building the technology MVP to run an iMessage-like application on a tablet was the easy part. Getting prisons interested in making a few pennies per SMS - also easy.
- Internet access and power. Consider weak-or-no data signal, and ethernet & power that must be drilled through thick concrete walls.
- Existing jail phone systems with the hardware already installed are protective of their business and were not willing to put our software on their devices.
- Integrating with existing canteen systems (a prisoner's bank account) was also complicated. There aren't exactly APIs for that.
- Lastly, and I found this to be most interesting, in our discussion of beta testing with certain prisoners was deemed a bad idea, citing that those who have special access become targets for other inmates.
I loved Hutson's Shutterfly-like photo service when I first read about it, since it improved a prisoner's quality of life without introducing the technology hurdles above. Amazing founder story and product.
After my own experience, I'm even more impressed reading that Pigeon.ly is handling over 2 million minutes per month and would be interested to hear the "how we did it" story on that one some day.
I suspect Hutson's success is largely due to the fact that (from what I can gleam by the TC article) his core offerings require no prison participation at all - and certainly no hardware distribution/installation.
In fact, both core offerings have been around for quite a while as mainstream services. My family once used http://www.localphone.com to make intl calls over VOIP via local numbers. And, of course, Shutterfly and others have existed for years to easily distribute a digital photo from your smartphone in print form.
The beauty of Pigeon.ly is he's taken these relatively straightforward products and adapted them to the prison population (and their families) who may not have been as aware of more scrappy options.
In my mind, it's more a brilliant marketing and hustle play - very well done.
I've installed quite a few of the existing solutions in quite a few prisons. I think the biggest factor that you pointed out is the existing provider.
Currently, there are only a handful of major players that really offer services in corrections. They are all currently trying to turn into the Apple/Google/Microsoft of corrections. So when you are trying to offer SMS services, they already have those services bundled. Along with video visitation, commissary, grievance reporting (kites), inmate phones and just a whole list of other services.
If you are doing an application for a tablet device then you wouldn't need the steel inmate proof case. Quite a few of the current tablet solutions are see through plastic.
The best way to get your messaging solution into prisons is to piggyback on other solutions. There are quite a few companies with solutions that are running around trying to throw what they have on as many platforms as possible. The key is to build a platform and have it to where it runs your messaging app.
Another thing with some of the current messaging solutions in the corrections market is that they will charge the price of a stamp for messages.
If installation inside of a prison is another hurdle, there are companies that you can work with on that.
I was dealing with this for about 5 years and have a whole bunch more to say about the opportunities but I'll just stop here.
I'd love to pick your brain about the existing prisons you've worked with. I'm working on a new project soon w/ Penmate that I'm currently doing a bit of R&D on. If you've got time to chat, can you shoot me an email at nick[at]penmateapp.com?
The idea was to provide a texting kiosk for prisoners to SMS friends and family.
Building the technology MVP to run an iMessage-like application on a tablet was the easy part. Getting prisons interested in making a few pennies per SMS - also easy.
Why did it fail? (why did we stop short?)
- The jails required hardware that, "cannot be turned into a weapon." Phone handsets are used as hammers and ripped from walls, so much that these came about http://media.columbian.com/img/photos/2014/08/25/257871_A_Po...
- Manufacturing and installing "safe" kiosks required for our app, like http://www.talton.com/images/kiosk_phone.jpg was a costly proposition.
- Internet access and power. Consider weak-or-no data signal, and ethernet & power that must be drilled through thick concrete walls.
- Existing jail phone systems with the hardware already installed are protective of their business and were not willing to put our software on their devices.
- Integrating with existing canteen systems (a prisoner's bank account) was also complicated. There aren't exactly APIs for that.
- Lastly, and I found this to be most interesting, in our discussion of beta testing with certain prisoners was deemed a bad idea, citing that those who have special access become targets for other inmates.
I loved Hutson's Shutterfly-like photo service when I first read about it, since it improved a prisoner's quality of life without introducing the technology hurdles above. Amazing founder story and product.
After my own experience, I'm even more impressed reading that Pigeon.ly is handling over 2 million minutes per month and would be interested to hear the "how we did it" story on that one some day.