California county deploys tablets for inmates
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The secure devices feature educational content and allow inmates to place calls in the privacy of their own cell, increasing communication with friends and family.
Corrections officials in Alameda County, Calif., have made secure wireless tablets available to inmates in the Sheriff’s Office Detention and Corrections Unit. As part of one of the nation's largest deployments of correctional wireless tablet technology, the devices feature educational content and allow inmates to place calls in the privacy of their own cell, increasing communication with friends and family.
Global Tel*Link’s Inspire tablets have telephone, educational materials, streaming music capabilities and other features for inmate use, all while maintaining corrections-grade security.
The tablets allow for complete over-the-air control of the proprietary operating system, including remote management of all system settings, applications and firmware. All operating system settings can be remotely managed over the air, allowing GTL to remove the user-interactive settings application of the operating system. Additionally, the company will be able to push operating system updates to the Inspire tablets.
“The three years we have devoted to the design and security of our proprietary portfolio of devices and wireless access has been time well spent,” said Anthony Bambocci, GTL’s chief marketing officer.
Our devices have been inspected, reviewed and tested by corrections security staff and other experts in the field, making us confident they adhere to the strictest correctional security standards.”
The Inspire tablets benefit both inmates and correctional facilities, according to GTL. In addition to paper-saving features for corrections staff, such as commissary ordering and grievance and administrative request processing, facilities can load the tablets with facility rules and guidelines, training manuals for jobs in various trades, social-emotional learning tools or even streaming music. The combinations of these apps can better prepare inmates for life upon release, with the intent to reduce recidivism, the company said.
“Using the Inspire tablets has allowed us to provide valuable educational content to our inmates, helping them to prepare for productive lives once they are released,” said Gregory Ahern, Alameda County Sheriff. “In addition, providing tablets to individuals has lessened conflicts surrounding the use of traditional inmate phones and given inmates productive ways to spend their time.”
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