They Bought Tablets in Prison—and Found a Broken Promise

“Has anyone heard from medium today?” Nicole writes in a Facebook group dedicated to the wives of men locked up in federal prison, where “medium” is shorthand for medium security detention.

“Nothing today or yesterday,” someone comments beneath her post.

A thread of comments follows:

“No, nothing today.”

“No, not yet.”

“It’s 3:15 pm EST … has anyone at all heard from their [loved one] yet, regardless of unit?!”

“No.”

“Nope … nothing.”

This exchange of messages offers a glimpse into the desperate dig for information that loved ones of federally incarcerated people go through on a daily basis when the prisons where their loved ones live go into lockdown.

As technological advances continue to offer citizens easier connections to one another, we often overlook a neglected population: the incarcerated. We sometimes think of prisons as being stuck in time, resistant to change and modernization. But the rollout of electronic tablets to prisons offered a glimmer of hope for incarcerated folk to stay connected with their loved ones and communities even in the face of more frequent lockdowns. The reality of how those tablets work, however, is tormenting people behind bars.

Blurred Lines

The tablets typically found in prisons are sort of like iPads, if iPads had never developed past the first prototype. The devices are heavily secured by the prisons’ administrations; they don’t connect to the internet but instead offer, for a fee, certain censored content like PG-13 movies and non-explicit music. Electronic tablets have also been sold as a solution to the most common communication woes; since they usually also have messaging and chat apps on them, the tablets seemingly offer a way for incarcerated people to connect with loved ones on the outside even when the prison pay phones are rendered out of reach during prison lockdowns.

Since 2022, federally incarcerated folks have been able to purchase these electronic tablets. However, in our reporting, by speaking with over a hundred people incarcerated in federal institutions across the country and their loved ones, and by reaching out to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and contacting 27 federal facilities nationwide, WIRED has found that federal prisons have disabled the messaging features in these tablets. Prison administrators are blocking access to communication tools, leaving incarcerated individuals isolated and unable to reassure their loved ones on the outside of their safety when their prisons go into lockdown.

In a lockdown, all of the incarcerated individuals—either everyone in a specific unit of a prison or everyone in an entire prison—are restricted to their cells for 22 to 24 hours per day. In this sense, lockdowns are a form of solitary confinement. Lockdowns also result in a major reduction in access to basic activities such as educational resources, religious activities, and exercise. Even showers become irregular or are cut entirely.

Historically, lockdowns were authorized during particularly dangerous events such as prisoner escapes, killings of prison staff, or violent prison riots, and they typically lasted only a few days. But much has changed in recent years as lockdowns have become a crutch for institutional issues such as short staffing.