A man incarcerated in a New Jersey prison has sued the state in a bid to block corrections officials from forcing prisoners to surrender personal electronic tablets they purchased to message loved ones, listen to music, and access other digital content.
Alonzo Hill, who has been incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton since 1990, filed a civil rights complaint last week asking a federal judge to allow inmates to keep the handheld devices and their content — or require the state to reimburse people what they paid for them.
The dispute comes as the state Department of Corrections switches to a new provider, ViaPath Technologies, to meet the communications needs of the 13,000 people in state custody.
JPay had supplied such services since 2014, with people purchasing tablets and paying one-time fees for content they downloaded for use in their cells and recreation areas. The ViaPath tablets, in contrast, are considered loaners that are provided for free but require users to continuously pay for content in a subscription model. ViaPath users in New Jersey prisons also face high restitution fees for damaging tablets and new limits on tablet use outside of cells.
Inmates bought the JPay tablets and content with the understanding they were “owned property without limitations,” Hill wrote. Yet corrections officials are requiring people to turn them in for disposal or send them home, gave incarcerated people no opportunity to chime in on the changes, and ignored his inquiries and grievances over it, he added.
That’s a violation of the 14th Amendment, which says that no state shall deprive people of property without due process of law, he charged. Hill is director of his prison’s Inmate Legal Association, a nonprofit in which jailhouse lawyers help other incarcerated people with their court filings and disciplinary matters.
“Many inmates utilize these tablets and content (at no additional cost) multiple times each day to relieve stress and anxieties of prison life,” Hill wrote. “State inmates were led to believe that if they didn’t violate JPay’s terms or NJDOC’s rules regarding the e-tablets, the chargers and content, that they could purchase and retain both throughout their sentences.”
He also objected to the “exponential cost increases” he suspects users will face under ViaPath, noting that many inmates make less than $2 a day for prison jobs — and some make nothing, such as those held in disciplinary units.
Corrections officials also have failed to guarantee that family photos downloaded and digital content purchased through JPay will transfer to the new ViaPath tablets, he added. They told people in custody that JPay tablets not sent home or surrendered for disposal will be considered contraband subject to confiscation, with their owners facing discipline, Hill said.
Chris Greeder, a Department of Corrections spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
But he said in an email that the department, JPay, and ViaPath have “reached an agreement allowing digital assets, including music, emails, photos, and related attachments, to be transferred to the new platform.” It’s unclear if there’s any digital material that will be excluded from transfer. Greeder did not respond to follow-up queries.
Eight of the state’s nine adult prisons have transitioned to ViaPath since March, with 9,500 people now using the new tablets, Greeder added. New Jersey State Prison’s switch is scheduled for the week of Aug. 10, he said. The department’s contract with JPay was set to expire this Friday, so officials negotiated a 90-day extension so people incarcerated in Trenton can continue using JPay services, he added.
Officials switched vendors because ViaPath offers “a modern communications system” at a lower cost than JPay, Greeder said.
Phone calls, money transfers, electronic messages, and video visits through ViaPath were cheaper than similar services through JPay, according to contracts and price sheets the New Jersey Monitor reviewed in May. It was tough to compare prices for music, movies, games, and such content, though, because those are pay-as-you-go services under ViaPath and outright purchases under JPay.
The Department of Corrections is “committed to providing incarcerated individuals with safe, secure, reliable communication services” that allow them to communicate with family and loved ones, Greeder said in an email.
Critics, though, have accused ViaPath of predatory pricing because of its pricing structure, service fees, and other practices, with people incarcerated in Nevada prisons boycotting use of ViaPath tablets earlier this year. The Virginia-based company also has racked up more than 600 complaints in the past three years with the Better Business Bureau and averages one star (out of five) in 87 reviews on its website, with many people complaining about costs and customer service. (JPay fared only marginally better on the watchdog site, with 368 complaints over the same time period and 27 reviews averaging 1.2 stars.)
Ronald Allen, who’s also incarcerated in Trenton, filed a statement supporting Hill’s lawsuit, voicing an additional concern. He said people make inquiries and file grievances through their JPay tablets, which connect to kiosks in each prison where people download content and communicate both inside and outside the prison via a restricted, surveilled intranet. He has stored all the inquiries and grievances he’s made in the past decade on his JPay tablet, he wrote.
“Without the kiosks, no accurate, reliable records of inquiries or grievances will exist,” Allen wrote.
Hill accuses state officials of deliberate indifference and is seeking a court order that would allow inmates to keep their JPay tablets, require the state to transfer all JPay content to the new ViaPath tablets, or reimburse people for content officials can’t or won’t transfer over. People in New Jersey prisons have spent between $1.5 million and $3.2 million each year over the past decade on JPay services, according to data the New Jersey Monitor obtained from the Department of Corrections last spring.
Hill also is asking the judge to appoint an attorney to represent him in court and award damages of $7,500 per defendant.
The lawsuit names as defendants ViaPath Technologies, Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Corrections Commissioner Victoria Kuhn, and New Jersey State Prison administrators Jeffrey Crothers and Douglas Stark.
Spokespeople for Sherrill and ViaPath did not respond to requests for comment.
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