Jail inmates getting some life lessons via tablets

Allegheny County Jail officials began offering customized tablet computers to some inmates this month and hope the array of educational programs will provide a substitute for watching television.

Latoya Warren, deputy warden of inmate services, said the tablets offer more than 2,000 hours of programming, including vocational and educational courses and lessons on health and wellness, spirituality, personal finance and parenting while incarcerated, the most popular at the Downtown lockup.

“It’s new, and very rarely does the jail have the opportunity to be on the forefront of a

new technology venture, so that was also very appealing,” she said.

Chicago-based Jail Education Solutions, founded in March 2013, donated 80 7inch tablets in hard protective cases. Last March, the county’s jail oversight board approved the purchase of 40 more for $105,000, paid for by commissary sales from the jail’s inmate welfare fund.

Inmates have access only to the company’s private network and cannot use the tablet to sign onto the Internet.

Co-founder Brian Hill said the technology, already being used in correctional facilities in Philadelphia, Illinois and Napa County, Calif., provides educational programs to inmates without a major investment by the jail or taxpayers.

“You have 2 million people who are just sitting around watching daytime TV in jail,” he said. “Our solution is designed such that now everybody can have access to meaningful opportunities.”

Allegheny County sought a jail population for its pilot program that would use the devices consistently, and chose to alternate them every two days between one male pod and one female pod of minimumand medium-security inmates, Deputy Warden Warren said.

On a recent visit, about 30 men formed a line to sign out the devices, which staff members typically hand out before 9 a.m. and collect about 7:30 p.m. The pod, with a Penguins logo painted on the gray floor, was quiet as inmates sat at tables completing lessons on the computers, earning points they can “spend” on movies and music, Mr. Hill said.

John Parker, 37, of Mount Oliver, said he was skeptical of the program at first. But since then, the father of seven has earned a certificate in the parenting class geared toward inmates.

“It takes our mind off of a lot of other things,” he said of the device.

The high-rise facility makes moving inmates around for some programs difficult and costly, Deputy Warden Warren said, and jail officials view the tablet lessons as a way to supplement current classroom offerings. Unlike other facilities that charge inmates $2 a day to use a tablet, the jail offers them for free.

“I don’t want to create a class system where you have to have money for programs,” Deputy Warden Warren said.

The rollout was delayed by a few connectivity problems, and one inmate last week said the device sometimes froze and had to be restarted.

A jail in Napa County temporarily pulled its devices less than a week into the program when officials said at least two inmates tried to restore them to factory settings, which could enable Internet access, according to local media reports.

Mr. Hill said replacement tablets, and those at the Allegheny County Jail, prevent such resets.