The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether California spends federal grant money on its program that provides digital tablets to inmates, who are accused of misusing the devices to view pornography and sexually exploit others.
Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and Reps. Brandon Gill of Texas and Tim Burchett of Tennessee, all Republicans, sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, citing a recent Manhattan Institute City Journal report that described how some prisoners are using the state-issued tablets to sexually exploit women and minors from their jail cells.
The Committee demanded Mr. Newsom turn over all communications with tablet vendors, documentation of whether federal funds were used in the tablet program, evidence substantiating Mr. Newsom’s monitoring claims, communications between the governor’s office and the prison system about tablet misuse and all documents about usage restrictions.
“Recent reporting indicates that California’s prison inmates are exploiting these state-issued tablets to access and distribute pornographic content,” the lawmakers wrote. “Even worse, reports indicate that some inmates have used these tablets to sexually exploit women and minors from their prison cells.”
According to reports, digital tablets were distributed to nearly all California prisoners by mid-2023. While the prisoner tablet program appears to have been funded mainly through state funds, the federal government distributes millions of federal tax dollars to California every year through different grant programs intended for criminal rehabilitation, crime prevention or state and local law enforcement or court support.
Since 2021, California has received about $70 million in federal Bureau of Justice Assistance Byrne JAG grants, $16.5 million in Second Chance Act awards and $410 million in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services funding for justice-involved reentry through Medi-Cal.
In 2023, Nathaniel Diaz was convicted of sexual crimes against a 12-year-old girl by sexually messaging with his state-issued digital tablet and exploiting her.
Recently, Mr. Newsom dismissed claims of inmate abuse of the prisoner tablet program, despite growing concerns that the program is not properly monitored to prevent sexual exploitation of women and minors.
“The Committee is concerned that California’s programs may be using taxpayer funds to perpetuate sexual violence,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is highly concerning, though not surprising, that convicted criminals found various ways around the safety controls on the tablet program, engaged in criminal behavior via the tablets, and consumed, sent, and received child sexual abuse material.”
Gov. Newsom’s press office, in an X post, called the accusations about the prison tablet program “flat-out FALSE.” It slammed the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal article, saying, “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,” the press office said.
Additionally, it said the prison tablets do not provide open internet access, communications are monitored, recorded, searchable and investigated.
“These tablets are used for education, rehabilitation, family communication, and reentry support proven to reduce crime — conveniently omitted from this propaganda post.”
