Albany, N.Y. - State prison inmates will soon be able to use tablets behind bars.
The state Department of Corrections has entered into a contractual agreement with a company called JPay to provide each inmate a tablet at no cost to the state. There are about 50,300 inmates in New York's state prison system.
"If it’s this easy to encourage vendors to provide free tablets to inmates," asked Western New York Assemblyman Steve Hawley, who is a critic of the program. "why aren’t they being provided to our students in disadvantaged school districts or to libraries?"
Inmates will be able to file grievances and have access to free educational material and eBooks. They will also to communicate with family and friends through a specially regulated email system.They will not be able to get internet access though.