Can Prison Inmates Use the Internet? TRULINCS: Technology Freedoms From Inside Jail

Steve Thompson,Yahoo! Contributor Network
Apr 2, 2008

As I've mentioned many times in other articles about legal matters, the law has yet to catch up to technology. It is extremely difficult for law enforcement, prisons and the courts to keep up with technological developments, and even more difficult to figure out ways to thwart people who would use technology for illegal purposes. This is why, up until recently, prison inmates were denied use of any electronic gadgets while incarcerated, including the Internet.

The problem is that, if inmates use the Internet, they have access to the outside world to a degree with which wardens and other prison officials are uncomfortable. It would allow them to run business enterprises on the outside, correspond with other criminals, arrange illegal activity, and generally disrupt security of the prison. For this reason, most federal and state prisons do not give inmates access to the Internet.

Various prisons, however, have recognized the benefits of allowing inmates to use computers and even e-mail and instant messaging while incarcerated. For one thing, computer training is one of the vocational studies to which many prisoners have access. Under the close supervision of instructors, they are taught data processing, word processing, and other computer-related skills that they can use upon release. It gives them something to shoot for once they get out of prison and search for a job, and gives them the opportunity to find gainful employment.

For example, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has started a program called TRULINCS which is an acronym for Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System, and allows prisoners to use e-mail to correspond with loved ones, though they still aren't allowed access to the Internet at large.

Using TRULINCS, inmates can add people to their contacts list, at which time their contacts are asked if they want to receive correspondence from the inmate. After that, the prisoners are given a certain number of computer hours each week, during which they can correspond with family members, friends and legal counsel. This provides a convenient alternative to the postal service, while giving inmates some measure of freedom while incarcerated. As mentioned above, however, they aren't trusted with the Internet.

Other state and local prisons have variations of the TRULINCS system, but it is doubtful that prison inmates will ever be trusted with full use of the Internet. Too much could potentially go wrong, in which case the prison would be held responsible, and jail is supposed to be punishment anyway. Nevertheless, technological advancements in the world of Internet firewalls and such may increase inmates' computer freedoms in the future.

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