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Pa. inmates may soon be allowed a version of electronic tablets

Pilot program could soon give its inmates the chance to buy a customized electronic tablet through the prison’s commissary system

By Charles Thompson
Penn Live

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Going to prison is never going to be the best way to stay current with new technology – unless you’re really into security innovation.

But the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is putting final touches now on a pilot program that could soon give its inmates the chance to buy a customized electronic tablet through the prison’s commissary system. Once operational, the tablets would permit inmates to download music, receive and send emails, and place orders for goods from the prison commissary.

“They are not iPads as you would know them,” Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in response to questioning during a budget hearing at the state Capitol Thursday. That’s because, he explained, the new tablets would not permit general Internet access. But inmates would, for a fee, be able to use them to plug into a central kiosk through which they could download incoming emails or buy music from a vast pre-screened list, and then read or listen at their leisure.

Full story: Pennsylvania prison inmates may soon be allowed a version of electronic tablets

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