Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

Jail Sells Visitation Monitor Ad Space

Florida's Charlotte County Jail now sells ad space on the jail visitation monitors used by inmates and visitors. The service is expected to raise at least $77,000 dollars per year; the money will be spent on jail services to inmates.


(Jail advertising on visitation monitors)

In some ways, this could be seen as a clever use of resources, particularly since giving inmates added services to reduce recidivism can be done without additional taxation of residents.

On any given night there are nearly 500 inmates in the Charlotte County jail. Many get video visitors, which sparked an idea, and now untapped ad space is up for grabs inside the jail.

"We're trying to give them a lot of resources, but we need money for the resources," Lt. Wilson says.

The county is capitalizing on its captive audience, targeting inmates and their visitors with ads for services they might need -- like an attorney.

"I thought instantly, this is a great opportunity," Attorney Tauna Bogle says.

Bogle is the first advertiser to sign on. Her annual ad costs about $1,500. It will reach an estimated 55,000 jail visitors in just one year.

On the other hand, it's easy to see how this idea might go horribly wrong. I was just thinking about the recent case of the Luzerne County, PA judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan. The two men accepted $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC.

Let's suppose that officials notice that some ads bring in more money than others. Let's suppose that they conspire to arrest, oh I don't know, people who have structured settlements and need cash now. Now that's the way to raise more money.

I was also thinking about the different efforts that advertisers were making to make sure that plenty of eyeballs were watching ads online. There's one way to make sure those eyeballs are seeing what they're supposed to be seeing. And jails do offer the ultimate in captive audiences.


(Clockwork Orange: A bit of the old vid for the glazzies)

From Charlotte County jail sells ad space for inmates via Frolix_8.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/10/2009)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Media ")

'Facetime Facelift' Beautifies Video Chats
Always look your best - on Facetime.

Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's
Wendy of Wendys meet Rondald of McDonald's.

Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper
'The structure... was once a great homeostatic newspaper, the New York Times.'

BookTrack Adds Sound To Books
I really don't think this is a very good idea. Readers?

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'

Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'

Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'

I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'

Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'

Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.

'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'

Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'

ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'

Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'

Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large
The Shape of Things To Come

Infrared Contact Lenses To See In The Dark
'I can see in the dark, Case.'

What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells?
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'

Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'

RentAHuman App Lets AI Agents Hire Humans
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'

Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing Runs With His G1 Robot Army
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.