374 DEAR HACKER

374 DEAR HACKER

managed to actually open some minds inside the system. No matter the outcome, those on the inside with the hacker mindset never stopped writing to us and shar- ing their experiences. It would be impossible to gauge how much we learned from them, but it’s irrefutable that we could never have heard of their experiences from any other source.

There’s a real frustration involved in seeing so much mail of this sort coming in. Unlike the vast majority of our current letter submissions, all mail from prisons is analog, either in the form of a typewritten page or a handwritten letter. For most of us, attempting either of these would be a real challenge. So right away, it’s somewhat sad seeing communications from people who seem to be so detached from the rest of us. That’s merely an illusion, though, as oftentimes the thoughts and theories presented in their mail is more cogent than any other we receive. There’s also a sur- prising lack of bitterness in their communications and nothing short of pure joy in simply being acknowledged or included in some way. The frustration, then, is that of not being able to do more and of seeing so many worthy cases fall by the wayside because there simply wasn’t enough time to follow up on all of them. I know there’s little more we could have done, and I only hope what we did do managed to make some difference.

You’ll find in this section that most of the people here were trying to figure out ways around various systems. We felt it was important to foster such curiosity because it kept their brains working and also was a potential victory for an individual against the most oppressive of environments. So we felt no guilt if we managed to help defeat

a phone system that was charging an unforgivable amount to a prisoner’s family whenever they called collect. The phone companies did this because they could, and they knew nobody of note would speak up for these people. That was the real crime. I think by giving a voice to this issue, we helped get word out to the mainstream about these injustices and eventually helped push for changes in a horribly unfair system. The sad fact is that most of us write these people off because we simplistically condemn all criminals as not deserving of any consideration. That opinion tends to change rather quickly when you realize how easily fate could land you in a very similar situation.

These are letters from people who were imprisoned for everything from hacking a web page to committing murder. In the eyes of society, they were all just condemned people to be swept under the rug. Here, they have a voice and a lot of interesting things to say.

In this collection, we haven’t printed any of their addresses (as we do in the maga- zine) because these change over the years. Also, many of these letter writers have

BEHIND THE WALLS

since been released — some to successful careers, others, regrettably, to a repeat engagement in the slammer.

If there’s anything that we at the magazine learned from these correspondences, it’s that communication is truly the key. In current issues, we continue to print such letters along with the addresses where the writers can be reached — and many of our readers send them news from the outside world. This is quite literally a lifeline, and oftentimes this contact makes all the difference. I hope our non-imprisoned readers continue to realize this and help those on the inside hold onto some sanity, either through personal letters or by writing articles for 2600 that help to feed their brains.

As one of our more prolific contributors from prison said, “Our only access to technology is by what we read through the mail.” That was from a hacker known as Stormbringer, as said in one of his many incredibly detailed letters on technology — technology that he’s often never even seen in person. There are so many others, includ- ing some high-profile cases that you may have read about in the papers, and kids who wound up in “juvy” for one offense or another.

Each of the letters contained here focuses on some aspect of the prison experience — nearly all of them were sent to us directly from an institution. The prison culture is far more prevalent than most of us know, and this is but a small sampling from a few very unique spirits.

Dear 2600: I’m working on a book that gives the hackers’ viewpoint and explains

why he/she penetrates computer systems. I believe that even though I’m currently incarcerated, I could get a publisher to publish such a book.