We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
IPADS FOR EVERYONE!
Sixteen years after Apple introduced the iPad, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has signed a contract with Securus Technologies to provide all BOP inmates with “corrections-grade tablets.”
Yeah, we’ve been here before. The BOP promised a tablet computer rollout four years ago. But this time (and I know better than to say this), maybe the BOP has it right.
The Bureau has selected Securus, which last year won a contract to replace all of the inmate tablets in the California prison system, as the vendor. The company said in a press release that it already “equips over 1,800 corrections agencies with 80-plus high-grade technology solutions to enhance public safety and optimize facility operations. Their offerings include secure communication, advanced monitoring, and the only corrections-grade Wi-Fi-enabled tablets…”
The tablets are not iPads, of course, but instead custom-built devices with limited features (such as no Internet connectivity). Still, they will to give prisoners access to a range of tools and resources that support reentry and communications with family. The devices will provide secure messaging and video services, and educational and rehabilitative programming.
The platform will also modernize many administrative and operational processes, “such as commissary ordering, request forms, program registrations and other routine workflows,” according to the BOP.
The rollout of the new tablet services will occur in phases across BOP institutions, the BOP said, with no schedule announced. The agency provided a similar phased rollout for the introduction of email, the electronic law library, and individual mp3 music players. The use of a vendor already involved in prison tablet placement and management suggests the rollout is for real.
To be sure, the BOP will benefit from the tablets as much as inmates will, with educational programming that can expand to reach all the people who need it, programs not limited by staff shortages, and paperwork reduction. And that’s not a bad thing. Any new program is likelier to succeed when everyone stands to gain from it. Additionally, reductions in the BOP’s workload may lead to greater responsiveness to legitimate inmate needs.
Not everyone is happy. The Luddites on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, and Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency announced in late May that they had opened a joint investigation into California’s prisoner digital table program, based on reporting by the conservative City Journal that purported to “expose” how some prisoners are exploiting state-issued tablets to sexually exploit women and minors from their jail cells. The City Journal based its revelations on “dozens of death-row inmates, who told us that prisoners in the state system use such devices to watch pornography and have explicit sexual conversations.”
In a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, the Republican chairs of those committees demand documents and communications “to inform the Committee’s oversight of federal criminal rehabilitation funding and whether federal funds were used to fund the state’s prisoner digital tablet program.” Oh, and to embarrass a blue state and its high-profile governor…
The tablets lack Internet connectivity, making the likelihood that the allegations are true suspect.
Writing in Forbes last week, Walter Pavlo suggested that the biggest beneficiary of the tablet rollout may be First Step Act programming. He said:
Rather than relying exclusively on classroom instruction, educational content can now be delivered directly to each inmate regardless of whether the institution is operating normally or under restricted movement. Academic courses, literacy instruction, vocational education and evidence-based programming can continue even when inmates are confined to their housing units.
This is particularly significant because Congress has increasingly emphasized evidence-based programming through legislation such as the First Step Act. The law encourages inmates to complete productive activities and recidivism reduction programs, yet prisons have often struggled to provide enough classroom space and instructors to meet demand.
According to Securus, the introduction of tablets in state facilities has been shown to reduce inmate rule infractions by over 20% and make use of contraband cellphones less attractive.
Correctional News, Federal Bureau of Prisons Awards Tablet Contract as Part of Broader Modernization Push (July 10, 2026)
Forbes, Federal Bureau Of Prisons Rolling Out E-Tablets (July 9, 2026)
BOP, Federal Bureau of Prisons Awards Transformational Inmate Tablet Contract to Modernize Communication, Education and Rehabilitation Services (July 8, 2026)
Business Wire, Federal Bureau of Prisons Selects Securus Technologies to Deliver Communications and Digital Infrastructure Nationwide (July 10, 2026)
~ Thomas L. Root