Tablets provide people in Delaware prisons convenient connection to family at a cost

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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

George Brinkley, who was recently released from the Delaware Department of Correction, said tablets provided by the state have helped him gain job skills and stay connected with his family. He was detained at the Community Corrections Treatment Center in Smyrna.

“It helps me communicate with my family because my family lives in Sussex County,” he said. “There’s a phone app that I can make a phone call anytime I need it.”

DOC partnered with ViaPath Technologies earlier this year to provide all incarcerated individuals with tablets, more than 4,000 people. It’s an expansion of a pilot program that started in 2019 with a ratio of about one tablet per six people being held in prison.

Brinkley earned money inside the prison by working in the kitchen, and cleaning the administration offices and his living area, making $13.25 an hour. But those earnings go to fines, restitution and court fees, not him. So it fell on his family to give him money to access the paid features of the tablet. He said his girlfriend would send him money for the device.

“I just tell her to send me a few dollars,” he said. “Just to be able to send her a text message.”

Community Corrections Treatment Center offers substance abuse treatment. The people incarcerated there don’t keep the wages they earn. But in Delaware’s other prisons, inmates earn just cents on the dollar for every hour they work, which means using the tablets can be expensive for them and their families.

ViaPath is owned by private equity firm American Securities. It’s one of the nation’s largest prison telecom corporations. The company provided free tablets to people being held in confinement and provided the infrastructure. It makes money through charging for personal communication with loved ones, and access to sports, podcasts, news, games, movies and music.  The costs range from three cents to five cents a minute. The tablets are not connected to the internet.

DOC officials are quick to point out that there are several free apps that an incarcerated person with no outside resources can take advantage of, including education, job skills and library books.

“We’re trying to provide a service to our residents that allows them to stay more connected with their loved ones in the community,” DOC Commissioner Terra Taylor said. “That allows them additional resources to support successful re-entry and without an increased cost to the taxpayer.”

The tablets can make it more convenient to keep in touch with family and friends because loved ones don’t have to go to the facility for an in-person visit, perhaps having to take off work and spending money on gas or travel. The availability of the tablets has also reduced the tension caused by people fighting for access to phones.

But the tablets can also be a pricey way to connect for both families and those in prison, who in 2023 earned an average of 28 cents an hour. A text message costs 25 cents, charged to the sender. Pictures, which only friends or family can send to the incarcerated person, also cost 25 cents.

People being held in prison can schedule video visits transmitted through the tablets, which are done through screens mounted on a wall. Video visits are 25 cents a minute. Phone calls can be made through the tablet at four cents a minute. Everyone in prison gets 10 minutes for free each week.

A DOC spokesperson said 50% of all activity on the tablets occurred on the free features. As of October, more than 8 million electronic messages, photos and ecards had been sent or received, 3.9 million phone calls and 324,000 video visits.