California death row inmates watching porn on taxpayer-funded tablets, evading security controls: report
Condemned prisoners on California's death row are partly filling their time by watching pornography and engaging in lewd conversations using taxpayer-funded tablets, according to reports, as the state continues its shift toward a Norwegian-inspired approach to rehabilitating criminals.
In an effort to connect its prison population with the outside world, California issued around 90,000 tablets to inmates as part of a multimillion-dollar program where incarcerated people could send and receive messages in real time to loved ones amid a push for digital equity.
The devices could also be used, in theory, for educational purposes. However, some have used the devices for more adult endeavors, The California Post reported.
The newspaper spoke with several death row inmates who claimed that users can evade security controls on the devices. Robert Maury, a serial rapist who strangled and killed at least three women in the 1980s, told the newspaper that he viewed pornography on his taxpayer-funded digital tablet.
Inmates use the tablets to send nude images and watch porn, he said from a state prison facility in Stockton. Many watch through a video chat application where an inmate can call someone on the outside who can "put porn on their TV" for the inmate to watch.
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 bullsh*t," he said regarding the explicit exchanges.
Nathaniel Ray Diaz, a convicted child sex offender, allegedly made thousands of calls to a girl he was accused of sexually abusing and threatened her with a gun from inside Avenal State Prison, authorities said. Prosecutors said he told the girl to send him sexually explicit images, which he received through a third party.
Jamar Tucker, an inmate at High Desert State Prison convicted of killing three men, said he has received videos of women "dancing … in a thong," despite rules that prohibit such material. He uses racy photos for sexual pleasure, he added.
While the tablets themselves are provided at no cost to the inmates, usage fees apply; messages cost 5 cents per text and video calls cost 16 cents per minute, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat, is pushing for the state to make inmates' messages free.
"It's the injustice of the whole thing," said Becker. "And not only injustice, but also the illogical nature of charging in a world where telecommunications costs are moving closer to free."
"It's the injustice of the whole thing," Becker told Cal Matters in March. "And not only injustice, but also the illogical nature of charging in a world where telecommunications costs are moving closer to free."
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"We created a pathway for them to reach out and groom folks," Douglas Eckenrod, former deputy director of California’s adult parole operations, told the Post. "There are going to be victims that didn’t need to have been victims because of these decisions."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the CDCR. The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom referred questions about the continuation of the tablet program to the corrections' agency.
The CDCR told the Post the tablets were "tightly controlled education tools" that provided inmates with "access to the Bible, education, and reentry resources that actually reduce crime."
California recently signed a contract with Securus Technologies that, with optional extensions, could cost taxpayers up to $315 million. The core contract is valued at $189 million over six years. Its contract with the state showed that it would charge less for those services than a former vendor.
However, some inmates and the people they communicate with on the outside have said there are discrepancies in the cost of messages, which the company said would be a charge of 3 cents per message. Grace Coleman, who is incarcerated at the women's prison in Chino, had sticker shock upon learning the price to stream movies on prison-issued tablet.
"All of the new movies, the ones that you would actually want to watch, you rent each of them individually," she told Cal Matters. "For example, Wicked: For Good is $8.99 -- and once you hit play, you only have 48 hours to watch it.
"They're making bank. These are like normal world prices," she added. Fox News Digital has reached out to Securus.
California has slowly moved toward the "California model," an initiative dedicated to improving the well-being of inmates, prison staff and visitors, according to a 2023 CDCR video. Taking a page from Norway's model of focusing on rehabilitation over punishment, the California model focuses on expanding employee wellness lowering recidivism rates and increasing job opportunities for released inmates.
"The victims I've spoken with about some of the programs that are going on right now… they're really impressed," Katie James, the CDCR's chief of the Office of Victim and Survivor Rights & Services, said in the video. "They know that probably won't change their circumstances because the crime’s already happened but they're really leaving with that peace of mind that it'll change somebody else's future and that really empowers them and it makes them very thankful to be part of any of that process that we can bring them in on, giving them that sense of balance that the person that went in that did this crime will not be the same person coming out."
In March 2019, Newsom issued a moratorium on the death penalty, halting all executions and closing the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.