Warden Tim Betti said the prison has about 350 tablets received as part of a 2017 telecommunications contract with Virginia-based Global Tel-Link Corp. Officials periodically discussed making the devices available to inmates since approving the pact, but delayed the process pending adoption of written policy regulating tablet use.
A reconstituted county prison board revisited the matter last week but ultimately tabled a vote on proposed policy until February. Officials discussed a number of potential benefits of introducing the tablets, which inmates could use for entertainment, communication and educational purposes, but wanted more time to review the proposed policy and address possible security concerns.
The tablets would operate on a closed network — an intranet instead of the internet — giving prison officials complete control over what inmates can access. Besides prison-approved music, movies and other media inmates can purchase and access with the tablets, the devices can be loaded with a full law library and GED-prep materials.
For a fee, inmates also could use the tablets to communicate with loved ones. Officials would oversee those communications and could reject messages that contain sexually explicit material, promote illegal activity or otherwise violate jail policy. Inmates would not receive refunds for rejected messages.
The tablets would be made available at specific times. Inmates would not be assigned tablets but would have to share the devices, which they’d access with personal credentials, Betti said.
Tablet privileges may be revoked temporarily or permanently at the prison’s discretion, according to a draft policy.
Commissioner Debi Domenick, who sits on the prison board and considers prison reform a top priority, touted the tablets’ potential to generate much-needed revenue for the jail. Domenick also touted another service allowing inmates to access their mail in digital form on the tablets, which would further reduce the likelihood of contraband being mailed to the jail, she said.
District Attorney Mark Powell, who participated in last week’s prison board meeting by phone, asked for another month to study the matter.
“My primary concern is security,” Powell said. “I am not opposed to having them available to the inmates. I just want to make sure that the policy in place when we do ... it is the correct policy, and I think at this stage waiting a month ... is a reasonable request.”
The prison board will meet Feb. 19. An agenda is available before the meeting by visiting lackawannacounty.org and clicking “Agendas & Minutes” under the “our LEGISLATION” tab at the top of the website.
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2020 The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
