This is an informal report compiled in response to questions from a man who is currently incarcerated within the Wisconsin prison system.
“I am collecting information on how computer technology is being used in prisons of the United States, specifically, but also interested in other countries. How are tablets being deployed? What are the policies? Are there classes and how extensive are they? Are the classes run by the prison or college? For example, Marquette University is in the process of developing a computer science program for the prison, one which I’m involved with. Please send me contact information for staff members or offices that can deepen the info pool…” — Jason G., classifieds section of the 2600 Magazine.
4.03.24
Hi Jason,
Thanks for reaching out and apologies for the delayed response. You may already be aware that Jeff Ray retired late January from his position as public information officer. If you’re still looking for an Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) contact, I recommend trying our education director, Ted Oparnico.
In researching your query, I explored the computer lab and library at the Idaho State Correctional Institution’s (ISCI) Robert James School, a special purpose school in the Idaho prison system. I also spoke to staff and residents who work in Education and pulled from information reported in my “First Amend This!” newsletter.
LEADERSHIP
IDOC director Josh Tewalt took the director position in 2019. He and his executive management team are heavily focused on preparing residents for reentry by expanding the level of support and opportunities offered to people in custody and under supervision.
TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
IDOC staff tell me that the agency has installed the necessary infrastructure to provide its entire resident population access to what is referred to as the Idaho Correctional Access Network (ICAN). ICAN will act as a “whitenet” that allows limited access to “whitelisted” resources online. These are said to include but not be limited to online academic databases like JSTOR and Libby, and IDOC-created, school-related materials that have been gathered by scraping websites and other means.
Instead of having a general account, the IDOC aims to issue a trackable user account for each user. One advantage of the ICAN cloud system is that residents can create work and education portfolios, and the IDOC is working towards allowing residents to take their portfolios with them when they transfer facilities and reenter the community.
My sources tell me the company Resultant is performing backend development and IT support, and that there is still a great deal of background networking and setup configuration to perform. To fully utilize the network, the IDOC must first obtain tablets, laptops, Chrome Boxes, user licenses for each device, and the staff to assign each device a user license. Other challenges are diplomatically referred to as “some red tape to work through.” With no timeline for completion, the department is exploring ideas to expedite the process.
According to my sources, not long ago all IT services for Idaho state departments were consolidated into one department. But ICAN has yet to be adopted as an official state department network, and so it lacks the official support needed to better push it along. Our educational staff are working on it but, between teaching and doing other stuff, they are limited in their ability to launch a robust, fully functional network.
JPay is accessible throughout all secure facilities, but residents must purchase tablets to access music, games, movies, video and other apps. Idaho appears to not have contracted educational content through JPay. We are unable to print or have documents printed from our tablets. We are also unable to take photos with our tablets or use them for video visits. Our current messaging packages start at five outgoing messages for $2 and end at 60 for $18. Residents are limited to sending 6,000 characters, and the system erases some unicoded symbols during and after text transmissions.
Our telephone provider is ICSolutions. They’ve set rates at $.08 per minute, not including tax. We residents pay approximately $.11 per minute after these rates are inflated through taxes.
The current contract for ICS Solutions and JPay allows the IDOC to receive a commission based on its average daily population.
COLLABORATIONS
The https://www.svdpid.org of St. Vincent de Paul works with the IDOC to provide extensive reentry support services starting from within our facilities. Contact: Mark Renick 207-477-1006. svdpid.org.
The IDOC is actively working with local universities to bring in-person and online classes into its facilities. But the curricula offered within our facilities depend on what services the colleges are able to offer the agency.
Some apprenticeship programs are recognized by the Idaho Department of Labor. These are arranged through the Training Department of Idaho Correctional Industries (ICI).
The agency aims to continue forming relationships with local organizations and businesses to provide its residents with additional education and vocational opportunities where it can.
VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Vocational opportunities vary by facility, with residents at some facilities limited to janitor and barber positions.
It was once the case that those incarcerated at ISCI were limited to labor-intensive vocations and training. These opportunities still exist, but within a push to broaden the skills needed for them to achieve higher level positions in the workforce.
The IDOC’s business arrangement with ICI uses prisoner labor to provide services and produce products for a range of businesses. An arrangement made between the IDOL and the training department of ICI allows laborers to accumulate apprenticeship hours that are recognized by the state. Future employers are thus able to verify the level training and certification achieved by those in custody, and a portion of the income generated through the arrangement is applied to staffing the guard posts necessary to oversee the program.
A flier found at the ISCI school advertises apprenticeships available at the facility: Cabinet Maker, CNC operator, Drafter Detailer, Welder, Graphic Design, Custodial Technicians, Office Manager/Admin services.
Other facilities offer training in construction, electrical work, masonry, solar panel installation, etc. But I don’t know that these programs are similarly recognized by ICI and the IDOL.
What kinds of tools are used in the maintenance shops?
My facility has an Institutional Labor Detail (ILD) shop and a hobby shop. The ILD shop is used by laborers–plumbing, grounds keeping, general maintenance, etc.–the hobby shop by hobby enthusiasts. I’m unsure of the tools available in either shop and am told that neither are equipped for electronic repair or computer repair.
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Schooling opportunities vary by facility, with at least one facility able to support GED studies only.
Education is not mandatory in Idaho prisons, and my ISCI currently lacks space and resources for continued learning. Our education staff are working with leadership to offer as many initial learning opportunities as possible.
Inside the ISCI education building are multiple prison programming rooms, five classrooms and a library. The classrooms support GED studies, Financial Literacy and Investing, Workforce Development, some business courses and a computer lab that offers an array of self-learning opportunities in an offline setting.
The library stocks a small inventory of outdated IT books, including books on electronic and computer repair. The computer lab maintains a vast library of more current (but still outdated) hardcopy and digital books on programming and software. I’m told that only books on hacking are restricted, and that it’s difficult for both libraries to keep pace with software evolution.
Our school runs Windows 10 Pro on HP 800 G2 computers, including those operated by our teacher’s assistants and librarians. (I’m guessing it’s the same for other resident workers with clerical positions.) There are multiple workstations with teacher aides in each classroom. The aides are tasked with different degrees of data entry and systems management, including tuning and modifying engine management systems and creating databases and software solutions. Our mildly aged tech limits what’s offered. With the exception of some newer machines that support our A/V production classes, most of our gear is new within the decade.
Are there courses on programming, CNC machining, data entry/literacy?
For self-study programs, our offline schools are filled with documentaries and (presumably creative commons) content scraped from various learning institutions. It’s that content that allows our residents to train in, among other things, A/V production, graphic design, 3D programs, some network security programs and an impressive array of computer programming languages. The ISCI computer lab tries to offer as many programming languages as possible to ensure that residents are able to work within the shape of modern innovation.
It also offers language instruction in Chinese, Japanese, English, Russian, German, Icelandic, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian, Nahuati, American Sign Language, Arabic, French and Italian.
Some tech training options that open up when I start to click around:
Moodle is an an open source educational platform; Kolibri is similar to Moodle; Blender is an open source 3D suite with core concepts transferable to more predominant industry standards of software; Django is a web framework, written in Python, that allows users to create and manage websites from the server side; PHP, Python, Autodesk, SQL, SQLite3, HTML, CSS, Java, JavaScript, W3.CSS, Gimp, GCF Learning, goodtext, InPicture, Krita, Synfig…
The goal of ISCI’s growing media department is to host recurring classes that complement the media program. What started from the need to create and disseminate training videos and town hall videos to meet the challenges that presented through COVID-19has since evolved into activities that allow wider participation from volunteers, staff and residents. At least one media course is accredited and capable of supporting apprenticeships recognized by the IDOL.
Unfortunately, the computer lab limits most users (including myself) to four hours a week and doesn’t allow one to print out personal projects like this report. This dramatically impacts my learning speed and output. For instance, this report, started early February on a computer in the computer lab, took until now to finish and send. Forbidden from connecting JPay devices to computers, it took one week to transcribe from a computer screen to my tablet using my thumbs.
EDUCATION PARTNERS
The (Inside/Out) Prison Exchange Program is a postsecondary education collaboration between the IDOC, the University of Idaho (U of I) and Lewis-Clark State College. The program was made possible through the Department of Education’s Second Chance Pell Grant Funding. The program currently serves two of Idaho’s smaller prisons and is looking to expand. Assistant professor of criminology Omi Hodwitz leads the U of I side of the initiative; Cynthia Pemberton is LC State President
Idaho State University (ISU) offers administrative services coursework (business practices, communications, etiquette, workers rights, law, etc.) and provides a certificate upon completion. The IDOC is suggested to have paid between $10-15K for this arrangement.
Former resident Mario Hernandez is sponsored by the IDOC in a limited capacity to act as an A/V production instructor for current residents. The apprenticeship tied to his class is recognized by the IDOL, and those who take it can receive certifications in BlackMagicDesign’s proprietary, advanced video editing program, DaVinci Resolve.
A collaboration with the Idaho Prison Arts Collective allows the agency to offer residents classes in mindfulness, arts, dance, writing and coding/web development in respective facilities. The collective is managed by Michael Richardson.
Dodds Hayden, a member of the Idaho Board of Correction, has sponsored a Humanities class for a select group of ISCI residents. I understand the class to be offered through a collaboration between Boise State University and the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.
There may be other education collaborations that I am not yet familiar with.
CULTURE
My sources tell me that department heads are open in promoting an info-gathering push, and that prison staff are encouraged to seek out and present solutions deployed by other DOCs. This includes traveling when needed for observation and training. The message to staff is: “Anything that can benefit us and make us better as a department–we want it here.”
The department welcomes information exchanges with other DOCs, and I have witnessed high-ranking staff from other DOCs visiting my facility to view its operations.
How do Staff view tech and prisoners that are tech interested/savvy?
A former resident who held significant responsibility as a server tech in the ISCI computer lab tells me that his job included regularly scraping and copying web pages for content to make available to the resident population. When asked about ISCI’s growing media program and tech culture, he said, “During my time here it has done nothing but grow and get better. There is a definite drive to provide residents who are willing to put in the time and effort to [gain] more knowledge and more skills that are relevant in the world today…”
“My work as a server tech here has been mostly good. I feel like, given my years of experience and knowledge prior to prison, I was allowed the job I have now after being recognized as a subject matter expert.”
“The tech culture here is very good for prison.”
The below announcement was posted in the ISCI education building prior to the above quoted resident’s departure:
Idaho Correctional Industries
Date: February 8, 2024
To: ISCI Resident Population
From: ICI Projects Department
Subject: New Hire Opportunity
ICI Resident Technology Team is looking for a competent resident to join our Apprenticeship Program with skills in information technology (IT) services and support.
Job Duties:
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- Set up troubleshooting and support of legacy desktops, laptops and servers
- Evaluate new hardware and software to meet company requirements
- Oversee the implementation, deployment and operation of IT systems and technology solutions
- Plan, develop, and manage all IT services, programs and support within the ICI Resident Network
- Monitor or optimize the performance, security, backup, and recovery of various system
- Maintain inventory of internal licenses and asset tracking
- Design, generate and present findings via reports as requested by Senior Management
- Provide technical advice and assistance to Trainees as needed
- Stay informed on new or emerging trends and technologies that provide clear benefits to ICI
- Plan end-user training as required
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Requirements:
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- 1 Year [free of disciplinary action]
- Minimum of 3 to 5 years before Parole Eligibility
- Pass Investigations background check for computer usage, per IDOC
- Knowledge of IT principles and concepts; systems testing and evaluation principles, methods, and tools; and/or emerging information technologies
- Experience working with the following environments: Windows 10 & Windows Served 2012+ operating systems and Microsoft Office
- Applications, with emphasis on spreadsheet functionality
- Knowledge of HTML, PHP, CSS, .Net, VS, VBA and SQL preferred, but not required
- Process interpersonal, and communication skills with the ability to detail and a high degree of accuracy
- Ability to manage multiple assignments and strong organizational and time management skills
- Self-motivation and the ability to take initiative
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Prior to any perspective hire, skills will be assessed and tested.
If you are interested, have some of these skills and want to learn, please give applications to your unit staff, and send a concern form to ICI stating you are interested and have submitted your application.
Matt Shepler
Training Specialist, Sr.
ICI
QUESTIONS FROM MY SIDE
What kind of tech infrastructure does Wisconsin currently have in place?
Is education mandatory in Wisconsin?
What prompted the shift away from computer learning? Was it a budgetary issue? A change in leadership? A security decision? Some form newsworthy attention lead to closure of labs? Did you have an IT team?
SUGGESTIONS FROM MY SIDE
When proposing programs, think DOC:
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- What levels of cost and commitment are associated with launching and maintaining a program?
- What are the current interest levels of staff, residents, administrators?
- The DOC’s current capabilities?
- To what extent are those involved in developing / introducing / maintaining programs able to open things up for experimentation?
- How will the taxpayers benefit? Is there a way to break even by reducing other expenses, selling products or services?
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I hope this is helpful, Jason.
Best of luck,
Patrick