By Dan Murphy
NEW YORK — A plan by the New York State Department of Corrections to provide free tablets to the 52,000 inmates in state prisons has resulted in opposition from some and calls from other to provide the same free tablets to public school students.
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, and DOC Acting Commissioner Anthony Annucci, made the announcement, which he called “groundbreaking.” Annucci and others said they believe the technology will help inmates re-enter the community upon their release.
The tablets will have restricted content, and will give inmates access to educational content, eBooks and music. There will be no internet access, and inmates can also file a report under the Prison Rape Elimination Act or communicate with friends and family through a secure email system. Inmates who plan to send emails have to do so during a scheduled time and can only contact people who have been approved by authorities.
The DOC will receive more than 50,000 tablets free of charge, through a deal with JPay, a company that specializes in services for inmates. No state funds will go toward the tablets, and JPay will hope to make money off the deal by charging inmates for making emails (40 cents per email, which is the cost of a stamp), or through purchases of books and movies. Families and friends of inmates will be able to direct deposit money into their accounts to pay for services.
Republican State legislators were disturbed by the news. State Sen. Terrence Murphy, who represents northern Westchester in the 40th District, asked for documents and contracts from the Department of Corrections with JPay.
“There are many questions surrounding this proposal including the role of taxpayer funds,” he said. “New Yorkers deserve to know for sure that their hard earned dollars are not being used to buy presents for convicted criminals. New York State’s budget is one of the largest in the world. Providing proper transparency and accountability as to the funding of programs must be a priority. The committee will use all of its power to get to the bottom of whether a dime of taxpayer dollars is being used to support this program.”
Upstate Assemblyman Brian Kolb, who is running for governor, said that the tablet announcement for inmates left many scratching their heads. “An iPad or tablet is a luxury that plenty of hardworking New Yorkers might struggle to afford,” he said. “It’s hardly a necessity for everyday life, let alone inside the walls of a prison. This administration has bent over backward to make life easier for those who have run afoul of the law.
“When more than 570,000 school-aged children live in poverty and a full 25 percent of economically-disadvantaged students fail to graduate, the governor is now handing out high-tech gadgets to murderers and rapists,” he continued. “While the average New York student takes on $32,000 in debt, the governor has advocated for giving free college education to convicted criminals.
“It’s no accident that the tablet program was unveiled at a budget hearing, buried in hours of testimony with no fanfare from the governor’s office,” Kolb added. “This administration routinely seeks credit and attention for issues of far less interest or impact (“Gov. Cuomo Announces State Fair’s Drone Film Festival and Competition Returns for Second Year”). On Tuesday, they were silent.
“Or maybe they recognize an obvious reality: When convicted criminals serving prison sentences are given free high-tech toys when average New Yorkers are struggling to make ends meet, there is something inherently wrong.”
In Yonkers, City Councilman John Rubbo introduced a resolution calling on Cuomo, the Yonkers State delegation, and New York State Department of Education to provide free tablet computers to the 30,000 students in the City of Yonkers.
The resolution states: “These inmates include violent felons and other career criminals… and the 30,000 students in the Yonkers Public Schools are future doctors, lawyers, accountants, professionals, craftspeople, laborers that will drive and contribute to the economy of the State of New York.”
“If the New York DOC can provide valuable tablet computers to the 51,000, inmates why can’t the NYS Department of Education provide tablets to the 31,000 students in Yonkers, New York’s fifth-largest city?” asked Rubbo. “If the New York DOC was able to find a partner to make such a significant investment in the 51,000 inmates, it seems like it should be easy to find a partner to make a similar investment in the futures of the bright, ambitious students in the City of Yonkers.”
