Inmates at the Sangamon County Jail will soon be issued their own computer tablets that can be used to take classes, communicate with family members and order movies.
The county is in the process of accepting bids from four firms interested in having the tablet contract. Sheriff Jack Campbell said he anticipates this will be a project that will generate revenue for the county.
“Depending on what company gets the bid, inmates may be able to use their tablets to complete their GED, read books, play games, watch videos, watch movies. … Maybe this can lessen the stress that they’re under. And at the same time, if they’re working on their GED, it can help them eventually gain employment that they normally wouldn’t have had a chance to.”
Campbell said keeping prisoners occupied is key to ensuring the safety of his staff and that of inmates.
“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop,” said Macon County Sheriff Jim Root, whose department issued tablets to jail inmates last year.
Root said another way the tablets protect inmates and staff is by eliminating the physical delivery of mail into the jail.
“Some people soak letters in a drug and mail it to inmates. The inmate will then eat the letter. With the tablets, we just scan the letters and send them to them electronically.”
Campbell said prisoners may also be able to use their tablets to have video conferences with family members from their cells.
Root emphasized that such calls are still recorded and monitored by staff. And visitation rights can be suspended if nudity is transmitted during a video meeting. While inmates can visit a limited number of education sites and choose from a library of approved movies, they are not able to access most websites, including those offering pornography, he said.
Campbell emphasized that prisoners will be charged a fee that will come out of their commissary accounts to rent entertainment videos, send email, participate in video conferences and take part in other non-educational activities. He added he hopes that educational programs will be offered at no charge.
Jenny Vollen-Katz, executive director of the Chicago-based prison reform group the John Howard Association, said the cost to inmates and their families is her only reservation about such tablet programs.
“There are a small number of companies that provide this service,” she said. “It’s really important to make sure that price-gouging doesn’t occur. We’ve seen this happen with (prison) phone calls over the years, and at least at the state level in Illinois, we’ve done a very good job of bringing down the cost per phone call.
“This should not be an opportunity to gouge people who already live with extreme deprivation and often come from a background of poverty – and that’s both the people who are incarcerated, and oftentimes, their support systems.”
Campbell said because the county has yet to accept a bid, it’s too early to discuss what the cost to inmates or their families may be.
He added profits made from the tablet program would be used to lower the taxpayer burden of operating the jail in much the same way revenue from the inmate store is used.
“We used profits from the commissary to buy a full-body scanner, which makes everyone in the jail safer,” he said. As to whether it is appropriate to provide pleasurable activities to the incarcerated, Campbell said most of those in the jail are awaiting trial and have not been found guilty of a crime.
Vollen-Katz added that separation from society is punishment enough.
“If you put people in prison and treat them horribly and subject them to inhumane living conditions, what do you think will happen?” she said. “Will they be better off when they leave prison, or will all of that trauma manifest itself in a way that isn’t good for their future success and isn’t good for that of their community either? So, I think we need to think a lot more about what it is we would like for everybody and how it is we get to that outcome.”
Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Freshman class.
