California’s prison tablet program is facing growing backlash after reports revealed a convicted child sex offender allegedly used the communication system to contact and exploit a young girl from behind bars.
The controversy centers on a multimillion-dollar initiative backed during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration that distributed roughly 90,000 digital tablets to inmates across California prisons as part of a broader rehabilitation and “digital equity” effort. The devices allow incarcerated individuals to send messages, conduct video calls, and access educational materials.
According to reporting from Fox News, convicted child sex offender Nathaniel Ray Diaz allegedly made thousands of calls to a girl he was accused of sexually abusing while incarcerated at Avenal State Prison. Prosecutors said Diaz instructed the girl to send sexually explicit images through intermediaries and threatened her with a gun.
The broader report also alleged some death row inmates used the taxpayer-funded tablets to watch pornography, exchange explicit material, and bypass prison security restrictions through video chat applications and third-party communication methods. Several inmates openly admitted finding ways around monitoring systems.
Robert Maury — a convicted serial rapist and murderer linked to at least three killings during the 1980s — described to The California Post how he uses a digital tablet while incarcerated:
In one instance, Maury said he received a topless photo from a 22-year-old German psychology student who was “hoping that I would share my story with her for her class project.” He also claimed he “flirted” with her “for a while.”
Samuel Amador, another serial killer sentenced to death, said porn videos are delivered in short 30-second clips and that inmates also have sexually explicit conversations through their tablets.
“I watch porn and short clips of my family at the beach,” he told the Post. “We get around their bulls—,” he said of the explicit exchanges.
Now, former California corrections official Douglas Eckenrod is warning that California’s inmate tablet program may have opened the door to new forms of predatory behavior inside the prison system.
“We created a pathway for them to reach out and groom folks,” Eckenrod said.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has defended the tablets as “tightly controlled education tools” designed to reduce recidivism by expanding inmate access to educational programming and reentry resources.
State officials say the devices are part of California’s broader “Norwegian-style” prison reform approach, which places greater emphasis on rehabilitation and reintegration rather than punishment alone.
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What kind of morons give prisoners tablets. They are in prison not day camp.
WHAT? Give prisoners unsupervised access to on-line services?
How STUPID is Newscum?
He may as well just given them an Uzi!