Convicted serial murderers and sex offenders in California's prison system are using state-issued digital tablets to receive nude photos, watch pornography, and carry on sexually explicit conversations, all courtesy of a program the Newsom administration sold to the public as a tool for education and family contact.

The tablets, distributed to nearly every inmate in the state system by 2023, were backed by a $189 million contract that could balloon to $315 million with built-in extensions. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation called them "tightly controlled education tools." Inmates tell a different story.

A City Journal investigation by Christopher F. Rufo and Haley Strack laid out what prisoners themselves say they do with the devices. The picture is not one of Bible study and reentry preparation. It is one of violent criminals exploiting taxpayer-funded technology for sexual gratification, and, in at least one case, for the alleged exploitation of a child.

Inmates describe what really happens on the tablets

Robert Maury, a rapist and serial murderer housed at a state prison facility in Stockton, California, told the outlet that inmates can receive "nude pictures" and watch pornography through the devices. Maury, who in the 1980s strangled three women to death and raped a fourth before he was caught, described receiving a topless photo from a 22-year-old German psychology student he said had been "hoping that I would share my story with her for her class project." He said he "flirted" with her "for a while."

Maury also described how inmates watch pornography via video chat. Someone on the outside will "put porn on their TV," he said, and inmates "watch with them." When asked about receiving explicit images, Maury said he "just say[s] cool and thank you."

Samuel Amador, another death-sentenced serial killer, offered a similar account. He said inmates watch pornographic videos delivered in "30 second clips" and engage in sexually explicit conversations through the tablets. Amador described alternating between explicit material and wholesome content, telling the outlet: "I watch porn an[d] short clips of my family at the Beach." He added that inmates can evade the system's restrictions, saying: "[W]e get around their bulls***."

Jamar Tucker, a capital inmate at High Desert State Prison, said the rules technically prohibit inmates from receiving nude photos. But he indicated he has received videos of women "dancing... in a thong" and uses racy photos for sexual pleasure.

A child exploitation case exposes the real danger

The inmate interviews are disturbing enough. But the case of Nathaniel Ray Diaz shows the program's consequences extend far beyond the prison walls.

Diaz, a convicted sex offender already behind bars for crimes against a 12-year-old girl, allegedly used a prison-issued tablet from inside Avenal State Prison to contact and exploit the same child again. Prosecutors alleged Diaz made "thousands of calls" to the girl, violating a no-contact order and committing additional child sex crimes. He allegedly told the girl to send sexually explicit images and received them through a co-conspirator. Officials said Diaz is in custody awaiting trial.

That a convicted child predator could reach his victim from inside a state prison, using a device the state itself provided, is the kind of failure that demands more than a press release about tightened restrictions. It demands an explanation for why the program was designed and funded this way in the first place.

The Diaz case is part of a broader pattern of accountability failures involving prominent California figures that keeps growing longer.

A former official sounds the alarm

Douglas Eckenrod, the former deputy director of California's adult parole operations, did not mince words. He said the Diaz case is only the tip of the iceberg and that there is no way to monitor the nearly 90,000 inmates who now have access to taxpayer-funded devices.

"We created a pathway for them to reach out and groom folks. There are going to be victims that didn't need to have been victims because of these decisions."

Eckenrod's warning is not speculative. It is grounded in the math: 90,000 inmates, devices in every cell, and a corrections system that plainly cannot keep up. The state piloted the tablets in 2018 and distributed them to nearly all prisoners by 2023. Inmates send text messages at five cents apiece and use video at sixteen cents per minute, costs that, combined with the contract itself, are borne by California taxpayers.

Last month, state officials attempted to tighten restrictions on the tablets. But the details of what changed, and whether the changes address the fundamental monitoring gap Eckenrod described, remain unclear.

The administration's framing versus reality

The Newsom administration heralded the tablet program as a step toward "digital equity" for "justice impacted" individuals. Officials said the devices would give inmates access to family contact, educational content, and the chance to "learn new technology." CDCR described the tablets as providing "access to the Bible, education, and reentry resources that actually reduce crime."

The inmates' own words make that framing difficult to sustain. When serial killers describe receiving nude photos and watching pornography through the devices, and when a convicted child predator allegedly uses one to re-victimize a 12-year-old, the gap between the administration's language and the program's reality is not subtle.

The pattern of Democratic officials promoting policies whose real-world consequences contradict their stated goals is not unique to California's prison system. Allegations of fraud involving Democratic-aligned figures and public funds have surfaced in other states as well.

Meanwhile, at least one Democratic legislator is pushing to make inmates' messages entirely free of charge, removing even the nominal cost barrier that exists now. The identity of that legislator was not specified in the reporting, but the direction of the proposal tells you everything about the political incentives at work. The impulse is not to rein in the program. It is to expand it.

Newsom's broader prison transformation

The tablet program fits within a larger pattern. Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on all executions, transferred condemned prisoners to facilities across the state, and dismantled San Quentin State Prison's death row. The administration has offered no indication it will reverse course on the free tablet program.

The result is a system in which serial murderers and child predators, people sentenced to the most severe punishment the state can impose, receive taxpayer-funded devices with fewer restrictions than a public school laptop. The contract allows for four one-year extensions, potentially pushing the total cost to $315 million.

The broader instability within Democratic leadership on questions of accountability and public safety is not confined to Sacramento. Fractures within the national party suggest that the appetite for confronting these failures remains limited.

And when Democratic officials elsewhere face scrutiny for conduct unbecoming their offices, whether it involves profane confrontations with law enforcement or the misuse of public resources, the pattern is consistent: the instinct is to deflect, not to fix.

Who pays, and who benefits

The people paying for this program are California taxpayers, families working to cover mortgages, grocery bills, and their own children's educations. The people benefiting include men who raped and murdered women, men who killed multiple victims, and at least one man who allegedly used the state's own technology to sexually exploit a child from behind bars.

CDCR says the tablets are tightly controlled. The inmates say otherwise. A former senior corrections official says monitoring 90,000 devices is impossible. And the Diaz case proves that the consequences of failure are not abstract, they land on real victims.

When your "digital equity" program hands a child predator a direct line to his victim, the problem is not a glitch in the system. The problem is the system.