By Christopher Zoukis There are more than 37,000 inmates in 55 prison facilities in North Carolina. Each year, more than 20,000 inmates are released. In fact, 98% of the entire country’s inmates will be released at some point in the future. And increasingly, a wide variety of rehabilitative programs are being offered to ensure that…

By Christopher Zoukis One of the biggest obstacles we face in prison education programs these days, is the outpacing of technology in terms of both course content and equipment. Technological development has occurred at breakneck speed in the last ten years, yet instruction in those areas is largely absent in the bulk of penal institutions.…

By Chrstopher Zoukis News about the JPAY tablet seems to be making the rounds again, even hitting the BuzzFeed wire. The articles have been focused on the special tablets they’ve created to be used in the prison setting (see initial coverage here). We wrote about this important innovation in prison education some time ago, because…

Last year when changes to the GED programs were first announced, analysts predicted it would have a serious impact on the ability of prisoners to acquire their certificates. A year later, those predictions have proven accurate. Prison GED success rates have dropped dramatically, in some places up to 82% since the system switched over. To begin, the content…

JPay has just released a new tablet, the JP5mini, an Android-based tablet that’s specifically designed to deal with some of the rigours of use in the prison setting. Its purchase cost to inmates is $69.99, and there are additional per-use fees with it. Its casing is more durable than the typical tablet’s, its firmware is locked…

By Jessica Guynn California inmates can earn cash making license plates for state residents. Soon they’ll be able to get paid for writing code. In a first for the country, prisoners at San Quentin State Prison are being considered for jobs as computer programmers. If everything goes as planned, they will work on projects for…

By Amadou Diallo The phone call Grace Bauer received from her son Corey, an inmate in Maryland’s Roxbury state prison, was one of desperation. An incident with other inmates the previous day made him fear that his life was in danger. “I had to call the prison and ask for help,” she recalled. Because her…

By Joseph Erbentraut When San Francisco-based venture capitalists Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti walked into San Quentin State Prison in 2010 to speak with a group of inmates that a friend was mentoring, they didn’t know what exactly to expect. But the men behind bars, whom Redlitz described as “the most engaged audience I’ve ever…

By Aimee Rawlins / 12newsnow.com Image courtesy theimpactengine.com Tablets and text messages. To the general public, they might seem standard, but for a prison system, they could be revolutionary. At least that’s what Philadelphia hopes. The city recently signed contracts with two startups to help educate inmates while in prison and keep them connected once…

Technology

North Carolina Prisons Add Technology to Rehabilitation Toolbox

From the streets to programming tweets

The JPay giveth, while the JPay taketh away.

When GEDs mean failure for prisoners

New prison-oriented tablet released

California Prisoners to Get Jobs as Programmers

With Prison Tablets, A Choice Between Rehabilitation and Profiteering

The Next Tech Boom Is Taking Place Behind Bars

How Philadelphia's Prisons Are Embracing Technology