Jailhouse learning

County inmates reap the benefit of e-tablets

Too much mindless television is bad for anyone, particularly men and women sitting in jail. In Allegheny County, some inmates now can use electronic tablets to give them a chance to learn something beyond the obvious, the lessons that landed them there.

The tablets do not connect to the Internet at the jail Downtown, but instead provide more than 2,000 hours of programming through an in-house network. Inmates can explore topics such as health and wellness, spirituality, personal finance and parenting while incarcerated, as well as other educational subjects.

Along the way, the inmates become adept at using technology they might not have used before being incarcerated. But because they can’t connect to the worldwide Web, they can’t use the tablets for nefarious purposes.

Don’t worry, taxpayers, you don’t have to pay for the technology, and neither do the inmates who use it. Eighty tablets were donated by the Chicago-based Jail Education Solutions; the county’s jail oversight board bought 40 more with commissary proceeds from the jail’s inmate welfare fund. Inmates have access to the tablets between 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., and earn points they can use for music or movies when they complete instructional courses.

It’s a smart program with a lot of bang for minimal bucks, but Allegheny County needs to make sure its inmates don’t get too happy in jail. Once they’re released, we don’t want them looking for ways to go back.