Prisons are constantly going on lockdown because of staff shortages, which means that prisoners can't use the phones. This makes tablet computers sold to incarcerated people are all the more crucial to let their loved ones on the outside know they are safe – but Gaby Caplan has discovered in her reporting for WIRED that federal prisons nationwide seem to have enacted a policy of disabling the messaging functions.

Why should we care? Gaby breaks it down.

Read Gaby's piece here:

https://www.wired.com/story/electronic-tablets-in-federal-prisons-chat-apps-disabled/