Predators, profiteers, opportunists — those are a few of the labels critics have applied to companies that supply electronic tablets in America’s prisons. The tablets give an incarcerated audience access to a selection of news outlets, study materials and entertainment, but for a price that can strain the budgets of prisoners and their loved ones.

The Marshall Project distributes a print publication, News Inside, in hundreds of prisons, and is launching a video series, Inside Story, featuring stories of interest to viewers behind bars. Should we make our work available on the much-criticized tablets? We’ve decided yes — with conditions.

As a teenager, I was involved in a shootout where someone lost their life. It was the worst choice I’ve ever made. Because of it, I was sent to prison for 27 years — right out of high school. I was both remorseful and sad for myself. But no one around me cared. Everyone had their own problems.

While there, I desperately looked for outlets to help me feel like I had value, so I joined a college program.

I quickly learned that I couldn’t have many basic materials to facilitate my education — access to documentaries of my choice, books and periodicals I thought were relevant. Prison administrators feared they could become Trojan horses for contraband. (Their fears were not unreasonable. I’ve seen marijuana smuggled in disguised as chocolate-covered nuts in individually wrapped Almond Joys.)

So I sought and developed hundreds of hacks to get relevant information. For instance, sometimes I would ask teachers to print out internet articles for me. Other times, I would glean the name of a law professor from a news report and ask a family member to track down an address for me to write.

The catch? The most popular companies charge for emails, movies, games, books and news. In many cases, they charge people behind bars more than what free folks pay for similar products. On average, incarcerated people who have paying jobs in prison max out at 52 cents an hour.

Fast-forward 25 years. Computers, emails, online courses and streaming have become common parts of life in the free world. Prison tablet companies packaged, adjusted and tailored these technologies, then promised various corrections departments a contraband-free way of delivering educational material, entertainment and modes of communication to incarcerated people.

It’s no surprise that many criminal justice reform advocates have railed against these companies.

So, after creating News Inside — our print publication that brings relevant news to incarcerated people across the US — we decided not to place it on tablets that charge end users. We didn’t want to add to the allure of devices that took so much from people who couldn’t afford to pay.

Read the full article about giving incarcerated individuals access to news by Lawrence Bartley at The Marshall Project.