WASHINGTON — Inmates at all Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities will soon have access to tablets.
The new initiative is part of the BOP’s effort to expand digital access to communication, education, rehabilitation and daily operations across its facilities.
The contract will provide secure, corrections-grade tablets to all inmates to provide access to tools and resources designed to support successful reentry and family connections. Inmates will be able to securely message loved ones and have access to video services.
Inmates will gain access to:
- Academic coursework and literacy support
- Career and technical training modules
- Evidence-based rehabilitative programs
- Faith-based materials and spiritual resources
- Healthcare information and self-care education
- Reentry preparation tools, including job readiness content
“Our first priority is the safety of our staff and the security of our institutions,” BOP Director William K. Marshall III said. “This contract modernizes outdated operations, reduces administrative burdens, and allows staff to focus on the critical work of maintaining safe facilities while expanding opportunities for rehabilitation and successful reentry.”
The platform will also digitize several facility operations that have traditionally relied on paper forms, including commissary orders, inmate requests and program registrations. The BOP said the change is expected to reduce administrative work for staff while improving accuracy and transparency for inmates.
The tablet services will be rolled out in phases across BOP institutions, with each implementation subject to security protocols and oversight, according to the agency.
Do inmate tablets make correctional facilities safer and more efficient, or do they create more problems than they solve? Share your experience in the comments.
Corrections1 readers respond:
- And they’ll figure out a way using secret words to conduct business even putting out a contract on someone. I worked IT all my life and there is no secure electronic communication device in prisons.
- We have them here in WA State DOC. The Edovo App for education has over 7500 videos and courses. It’s a game changer.
- They will definitely reduce prison violence. They have proven to in the past. “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”
- Tablets inside the prisons cause more problems than they alleviate; it is simply another object the Inmates barter with and then fight over. They end up giving out their personal PIN numbers; other inmates soon begin to have the phone number to other families calling and extorting them also. With the initial tablet being free once one is broken it takes time to be replaced at a significant amount of money (for inmates). In this facility, we learned fast the inmates will break tablets and remove small magnets inside to jam and defeat the locking mechanisms on cell doors, allowing them to walk in and out of their cell while it appears locked, causing a security threat to inmates and staff. Additional staffing: remove all staff from shifts that family may be the shift supervisor on. Inmates receive only what they have due, nothing extra. Admin must work shift and run weekly at least, to understand the temperament of the prison as a whole, not on any “easy” post; must serve chow/run yards back to the grunt work. Remove and replace all cert members and 5-day post biannually, to keep officers’ pay raised, cut hours to adjust pay difference and foreseen burden to taxpayers. Speed up executions.
- Safer, I was in prison, and my inmates had tablets; all of them were on their beds enjoying content. When there is no tablets, it’s idle hands, which is the devil’s workshop.
- Yes they do. Internet access would greatly enhance keeping inmates in their cells alone and not being disruptive. This will work towards that same result, but poorer inmates will not have access to as much diversion. It is a pay-to-play tablet.
- I believe this new program will help inmates to not become institutionalized and certainly help them when they get out.
- Who ever thought this was a good idea never worked in a prison. We can’t get students tablets in school. But we give to inmates?
You can’t expect people to change if they don’t have anything to live for . It keeps families connected, there’s education, faith based content, reentry courses ect. It keeps them busy which means less conflict in the units. Also helps staff with the endless amount of papers to go over from medical, commissary forms, general questions ect. People assume there surfing the web and that’s not true it’s not the Internet people!! When you have a loved one incarcerated you will understand the connection it brings back to families and children the most. I think its a very positive thing.
