United States | Reading between the bars

More American prisoners are receiving a tech-based education

Jails are experimenting with tablets and Zoom classes

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Charles Krupa/AP/Shutterstock (9769348b)Inmate Anthony Plant reads from a tablet at his bunk at the Corrections Transitional Work Center, a low risk security section at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men, in Concord, N.H., . Inmates across the country are getting access to technology via tablets in an effort to help their education, keep them connected to family and reduce noise and violence in prisonInmate Tablets, Concord, USA - 23 Jul 2018

Sep 8th 2022

Pedro, a gang leader at a prison in Massachusetts, is a physically imposing man, with several teardrop tattoos. Yet for most of his life he did not know how to read or write. More than 70% of inmates in America have the literacy skills of a fourth-grade (nine-year-old) pupil, or below. Joining a prison’s basic adult-education classes can ruin a gang leader’s reputation. But Pedro’s prison was piloting a programme that gives tablets to inmates and lets them study privately. One day, the warden recalls, Pedro whispered to her: “I can read!”

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Reading between the bars”