By Beth LeBlanc
The Detroit News
DETROIT — The Michigan Department of Corrections tightened its controls on electronic devices in Michigan state prisons this week after officials found inmates had tampered with some of the roughly 24,000 tablet computers in prison circulation to gain unfiltered access to the internet.
In some cases, the tablets were being used to conduct “criminal enterprise activity” within state prisons after inmates rigged their tablets with contraband Wi-Fi sticks to access the internet and conduct unmonitored communication, said Jenni Riehle, a spokeswoman for the department.
Overall, since October 2024, the Department of Corrections has found that about 5% of the 24,000 tablets, or about 1,200, were compromised after inmates enabled Wi-Fi on the devices, had them in an unauthorized unit or had unauthorized apps, Riehle said. The department has been troubleshooting problems with the Android-based devices among its roughly 33,000 inmates since the tablets were introduced in state prisons in 2017.
Inmates can purchase the tablets from a prison kiosk for $39.99. The tablets are meant to be used for approved education programs and games and are barred from having access to the internet, Riehle said.
“Since the introduction of this new technology, MDOC has continuously communicated with the vendor to identify and request solutions for security vulnerabilities as technology and manipulation techniques evolve,” Riehle said.
The altered tablets have been “extremely problematic” for staff in recent months as they try to crack down on inmates’ access to communications and material they aren’t supposed to have, said Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization, the union representing prison guards.
"(Inmates are) watching movies. They’re watching pornography. They’re communicating with family and or gang members outside the prison system,” Osborn told The Detroit News. “With these tablets in this jailbroke status, they can do whatever the hell they want.”
Osborn said the number of “jailbroke” tablets is likely much higher than the MDOC’s estimate of 5%.
Not only does the unmonitored communication present a risk to the MDOC facilities in and of itself, Osborn said, the situation also presents a risk to corrections officers tasked with confiscating the tablets, which inmates use to broker access and make money off other inmates who don’t possess a tablet with illegal access to the internet.
“This is a big, big loss for them to have the tablet confiscated, and we’ve had multiple officers assaulted for taking these from them,” Osborn said.
The MDOC’s new policy, according to documents obtained and reviewed by The News, would, starting this week, tweak the approval and verification process for the purchase and delivery of tablets through the vendor JPay to create a delay between when inmates lose their tablet and when they can purchase a new one. Also, starting June 23 , the changes would add to common examples of dangerous contraband the “possession of an altered electronic tablet or any device manipulated to allow unmonitored communication.”
The policy changes, Riehle said, are meant to stop unmonitored communication by prisoners and “will improve tablet registration and tracking by the facility, which will lead to greater prisoner accountability.”
Osborn said he’s encouraged by the corrections department’s efforts but said they fall short of what is needed.
“What we would like to see is the department, they’re going to have to take all these tablets out of the facilities or start over with a new device or new measures,” Osborn said.
All tablets are pre-approved by the department, but “some prisoners find ways to alter the tablet with the use of contraband to access internet services,” Riehle said.
“The department has discovered incidents that involve criminal enterprise activity on tablets and cellphones, which may pose a threat to the safety and security of MDOC institutions,” Riehle said.
When asked what type of criminal enterprise activity inmates were engaged in, Riehle suggested The News submit a public records request for the information.
When asked whether inmates had been accessing pornography through the tablets, Riehle did not answer directly. Instead, she said the policy changes were made primarily to stop unmonitored communication and “are not a direct result of prisoners accessing adult content.”
The Department of Corrections works to find and remove compromised tablets and identify contraband, such as Wi-Fi sticks, used to rig them for internet access, she said.
“The department will continue the effort to identify security concerns with the tablets while working to maintain access for prisoners to use the tablets for authorized purposes,” Riehle said.
Corrections officers have tried to crack down on the unauthorized use, but inmates have found new ways to manipulate the technology for other purposes, Osborn said. The issue has persisted over the past couple of years but appears to have “ramped up” over the past 12 months, he said.
“The prisoners in many cases are a step or two ahead of our security measures,” Osborn said. “They’re innovative. They figure these things out. Once they realized these tablets could be altered, this took off like a wildfire.”
State Rep. Bradley Slagh, a Zeeland Republican who leads the House subcommittee managing the corrections budget, said he was unaware of the problems the MDOC was encountering with the tablets. While he acknowledged that inmates’ access to the internet should be prohibited, the tablets can be helpful from an educational perspective, Slagh said.
“I think it’s a tool that we really need to have available to people, and it allows, especially those folks that are going to get out, you need to be able to keep up at least a little bit with technology,” Slagh said. “Or you’re really stuck trying to come out of the prison system and get back into society.”
Inmates smuggling contraband communication devices into prisons does not appear to be unique to Michigan. The state prison system also has sought to address contraband cellphones that prisoners have used for unmonitored communications.
In late March, Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington and Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 31 other states in asking Congress to allow prisons to adopt technology that would interrupt cellphone services in prisons and jails.
The “signal jamming or micro-jamming” technology would help to stop prisoners from using contraband phones to “organize violent crimes such as sex trafficking, domestic abuse and murder,” Washington said. But the technology is currently barred in state facilities by federal law.
“Corrections departments across the country are not only seeing an increase in contraband cell phones but also an increase in sophisticated crimes being committed when prisoners have access to them,” Washington said in a March statement.
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