After allegations surfaced that California prison inmates were using tablets purchased with millions of taxpayer dollars to view pornography and contact minors, Gov. Gavin Newsom denied the claims and threw a tantrum.
City Journal’s Christopher Rufo broke the original story. “California spent nearly $189 million to give every state prisoner a free iPad. We interviewed a dozen death row inmates, who told us that prisoners are using the tablets to watch porn, engage in x-rated chats, and groom minors on the outside,” he said. Newsom reacted by claiming the inmates are not good authorities on how the inmates use the iPads, but Rufo says an official and prosecutors also confirmed the scandal.
The state of California claims that it can regulate the iPads to ensure that the inmates do not use them to view pornography and have sexualized online conversations, but based on the testimony from the individuals Rufo interviewed, it is fairly easy for inmates to bypass the supposed restrictions.
Newsom’s office freaked out at the report, posting on X:
This is flat-out FALSE.
This MAGA nonprofit provides ZERO evidence for its outrageous claims.
Their “sources”? Convicted murderers and a random guy who doesn’t even live in California.
FACT: Prison tablets DO NOT provide open internet access.
FACT: Communications are monitored, recorded, searchable, and investigated.
FACT: These tablets are are used for education, rehabilitation, family communication, and reentry support proven to reduce crime — conveniently omitted from this propaganda post.
Despite Newsom et al.’s righteous indignation, which apparently did not include proofreading for grammatical errors, he and his office misrepresented the report. Not that that will surprise anyone. Incidentally, Newsom and his fellow Democrats released the convicted murderer who killed Fatima Johnson in 2021 and refused to honor an ICE detainer for the killer of an 11-year-old. Newsom also pardoned an illegal alien attempted murderer. Amazing how Newsom trusted those convicted murderers, but not the convicted murderers who exposed his screwup.
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Rufo replied to Newsom’s office:
Actually, our sources are:
• A former high-ranking California prison official
• Federal prosecutors, who are pursuing charges against a prisoner for grooming a minor through his state-issued tablet
• A dozen current inmates who are enjoying your “porn for prisoners” program https://t.co/Pj3mPVJpKf
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) May 13, 2026
From Rufo’s City Journal article:
Newsom has placed a moratorium on all executions, transferred condemned prisoners to facilities across the state, dismantled San Quentin State Prison’s death row, and turned the notorious prison into a therapeutic center, with art, classrooms, a café, and podcast studios.
As part of this transformation, the Newsom administration approved a $189 million contract to provide new digital tablets—generic, flat-screen devices in a plastic shell—to every inmate in the state prison system, at “no cost” to offenders. The administration heralded the effort to replace inmates’ old tablets—which were piloted in 2018 and given to nearly all prisoners by 2023—as a step toward “digital equity” for “justice impacted” individuals, who could, in theory, use the devices to contact their families, consume “educational” content, and “learn new technology.”
Except, as repeatedly described above, the utopian aspiration and the ugly reality don’t even remotely match. Who could have predicted that?
Crazy how it costs $2,000+ per inmate to distribute $500 iPads. Must be nice to be that NGO middleman https://t.co/jG5sTnZwVh
— Gary (@plzbepatient) May 13, 2026
Marxists always want human nature to conform to their ideology instead of shaping their opinions based on human nature. And that is why Marxism always fails spectacularly.
Gavin Newsom spent $189 million to give every state prison inmate a free iPad. Child predator Nathaniel Diaz allegedly used it to stalk, control, and exploit a minor on the outside. In the name of “digital equity,” Newsom gave convicted pedophiles a new way to commit crimes. pic.twitter.com/zqnvhDCTgP
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) May 13, 2026
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