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PACEs in the Criminal Justice System

Discussion and sharing of resources in working with clients involved in the criminal justice system and how screening for and treating ACEs will lead to successful re-entry of prisoners into the community and reduced recidivism for former offenders.

Free Wi-Fi Tablets Change Prison Dynamics (prisonjournalismproject.org)

 

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On Aug. 10, 2021, Valley State Prison (VSP) in Chowchilla, California, became the first to provide free Global Tel Link (GTL) Wi-Fi tablets to its incarcerated population.

Earlier in February, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had said it entered into a contract with GTL to expand free tablet and kiosk access and reduce phone rates. “The enhanced communication project aims to strengthen the bonds between the incarcerated population with their families and communities,” according to its website.

It said that jails and prisons nationwide were seeing the benefit of providing electronic access to rehabilitative programs, departmental updates and leisure activities like games and books.

Unsurprisingly, many of the questions revolved around how the tablet can operate as a phone. The phone app allows calls to be made from the tablets anytime from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. in the dayroom, in the cell, or — believe it or not — in the yard.

For some people, the messaging app is the best thing about the tablets because it allows near-real-time texting (but not email) between the incarcerated individual and their loved ones, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Better still, messaging provides a way for people outside to contact those on the inside without having to wait for a phone call or for the prison mail system, which is so slow it seems like it’s being delivered by a glacier.

To read more of Benjamin Frandsen's article, please click here.

[Photo by Emma Steinhobel on Unsplash.]

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Thanks for sharing, Dana.  I was wondering how it was going at Valley State Prison with the tablets.  Unreal, though, about sending hardback books that offer healing and wholeness being considered contraband and get annihilated before they're delivered to the incarcerated resident, and yet here now it's acceptable to give them a ten-pound object that when broken, could be one sharp knife.  That's what I consider to be contraband, but...

Blessings, Tammy

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