PA Inmates soon be allowed a version of electronic tablets
Going to prison is never going to be the best way to stay current with new technology – unless you’re really into security innovation.
Camp Hill State Prison View full size Inmates walk around the yard at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill. JOHN C. WHITEHEAD/The Patriot-News
But the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is putting final touches now on a pilot program that could soon give its inmates the chance to buy a customized electronic tablet through the prison’s commissary system.
Once operational, the tablets would permit inmates to download music, receive and send emails, and place orders for goods from the prison commissary.
“They are not iPads as you would know them,” Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in response to questioning during a budget hearing at the state Capitol Thursday.
That’s because, he explained, the new tablets would not permit general Internet access.
But inmates would, for a fee, be able to use them to plug into a central kiosk through which they could download incoming emails or buy music from a vast pre-screened list, and then read or listen at their leisure.
Wetzel and Corrections Executive Deputy Secretary Shirley Moore Smeal said if the program works, they see it as having a couple of benefits:
• Improving entertainment options for inmates in their down time.
• Enhancing security.
On the latter point, where radios are available to inmates for purchase now, they have been used to store contraband, and component parts have been transformed into weapons.
“What we’re trying to do is replace radios, because radios have parts on them that become weapons. And also, we have some individual who are able to rewire their radios to… intercept our radio signals,” Wetzel told senators.
“These tablets are kind of the new wave… Much more secure.”
As far as improving the quality of life for inmates – always important in a prison environment where stress and conflict can trigger fights or other problems – officials also see the tablets as a long-range improvement.
Since many state prisons are in relatively rural locations, radio reception is not a strong suit.
But inmates “like to listen to music just as much or more than other people,” Deputy Press Secretary Susan Bensinger noted in a follow-up interview this week. “We think this is going to be a good thing for them.”
Prison officials have no plans to remove radios from inmates already using them, Bensinger stressed. Though if the tablet system proves successful radios may eventually be phased off the commissary inventories.
Costs of the new devices have not been established yet.
In other states, however, a company is selling a mini-tablet to inmates for about $50, with downloadable content costing anywhere from 80 cents to about $1.50.
E-mail, Bensinger said, would be restricted to those friends or family who have opened an account to contact specific inmates through the department’s existing inmate email provider, JPay.
Under the current system, e-mails coming into to the prison and are delivered via hard copy to inmates. Inmates can only respond via written letter or telephone.
Not everyone thinks what Wetzel called “the new wave” will be good in Pennsylvania.
Jason Bloom, a vice president for the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, the union representing prison guards, said he has security concerns.
“While the department claims they (the tablets) won’t be wifi capable, we all know inmates can overcome security protocols,” Bloom said via email this week. “The potential risks don’t justify the taxpayer expens.”
DOC officials are expected to review a prototype of the tablets next month.
If the device meets with approval, the units could be rolled out at prisons in Frackville and Mahanoy for a pilot later this spring, Smeal said.
As envisioned now, Smeal said, the tablets would be available to all inmates able to buy them except those in restricted housing units for disciplinary or other reasons who would not have access to the kiosks.
Though the tablet program is a new twist for Pennsylvania, prison inmates here and elsewhere have had the option of owning their own personal entertainment devices for many years.
In addition to radios, Pennsylvania inmates can currently buy small televisions (with a limited cable tier).
The state does not sell or permit MP3 players at present, with one exception: inmates who were temporarily transferred to Michigan several years ago due to cell-space shortages were permitted to keep devices they got there.
Inmate computer access is available only in educational settings or at halfway houses.
As far as usage of the new devices is concerned, officials said the same rules and controls that apply to radios now would likely apply.
Smeal said that while terms of a contract with the vendor are still being finalized, she expects the program will be cost-neutral to the state.
She said that’s because DOC’s role is primarily granting the franchise for the program to the vendor, who would make money through sales of devices and content.
Robert Storm
Eastern Region Vice President
www.pscoa.org