How prisoners in America got into stocks

From the article:

Then, crucially, the government stepped in with covid-relief funds, which were somehow granted to prisoners. (Congress did not bar us from getting stimulus cheques, though the Internal Revenue Service tried to.) That windfall came as a total shock.

[…]

Stimulus payments meant people habituated to scarcity suddenly had $1,200 in their hands (then $2,000 more as the government approved two additional payouts). And rather than splurge on items we usually go without – honey buns ($1.10 each), king-size chocolate bars ($2.40) or high-end toothpaste ($5.28) – more than a few of us chose to invest.

[…]

We needed help to invest, though. Prisoners don’t have iPhones, much less apps like Robinhood, which allow users to trade stocks online with ease and without broker fees. Nick sent his stimulus cheque to his brother, asking him to open a brokerage account and trade on his behalf. But trading was a new phenomenon to many on the outside too; some 20m Americans took up trading during the pandemic. So, talking on pay-phones at appointed hours (a 20-minute call costs $2.50), we helped our proxies navigate trading platforms we could not see. It was like playing chess blindfolded: slow and arduous.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/J3Fcq