New York To Give Inmates Free Tablets [Poll]

Beginning in the summer of 2018, each of the more than 50,000 inmates in New York state prisons will be given a tablet computer to use, free of charge. According to state officials, the tablets will not have direct access to the internet.

Anthony Annucci, acting commissioner of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, announced the program during a state budget hearing Tuesday, the Democrat & Chronicle said.

The NYS DOCCS tweeted that the tablet program will cost the state nothing.

“The table initiative is not dependent on the budget as there are no state funds being used, nor is the Department taking commissions,” a tweet dated Jan. 31 said.

The program is part of a contractual agreement recently entered into with JPay, a company that enables families to send inmates money, offers inmate email services and provides other services, such as video visitation.

The tablets will be pre-loaded with educational material, according to a press release from the DOCCS, and will also make additional services for inmates available, such as Prison Rape Elimination Act reporting, grievance filing and the potential for placing commissary orders.

Republican Assemb. Steve Hawley, of Batavia, Genesee County, wondered why a luxury item is being given to prisoners.

“If it’s this easy to encourage vendors to provide free tablets to inmates,” he told the Democrat & Chronicle in a statement, “why aren’t they being provided to our students in disadvantaged school districts or to libraries across the state as a community resource?”

New York won’t be the only state to have such a program. Georgia and Colorado provide tablets to inmates and Connecticut recently announced plans for a program, CNN said.

The Connecticut Department of Correction Commissioner Scott Semple vouched for the program.

“These tablets are an embedded network where there is no risk of victimization with the use of Wi-Fi, but it has a lot of capability to keep people connected with technology,” he told CNN.

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