This week, inmates at an Oklahoma prison began receiving special computer tablets as part of a Department of Corrections initiative to provide secure tablets to everyone incarcerated in state prisons.
According to NBC News, the tablets, specially designed by Securus Technologies, a prison communications company, will provide free content such as access to a law library, prison policies, some books, educational and self-help materials, designed to put a new world of information at inmates fingertips.
Inmates will also have the option to pay to receive music, movies, games, and television programs, as well as to send and receive messages, including video messages, to and from their families. The tablets will not have unrestricted access to the internet.
In the past, inmates who wanted to receive educational or vocational training would need to be escorted to a classroom or program location. But with these devices, inmates can now receive those services directly on the tablet, Mike Carpenter, chief of technical services and operations at the Corrections Department, told the Associated Press.
“The education and programming, that’s huge for us,” Carpenter added.
