The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has launched an investigation into the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) prisoner digital tablet program that allegedly allows inmates to watch porn, have explicit video chats, and exploit women and minors on the outside.
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City Journal broke the story earlier this month, reporting that the Newsom administration approved a $189 million contract to provide new tablets to every inmate in the state prison system.
According to the shocking report, the program distributed tablet computers to nearly all California prisoners by mid-2023.
A former high-ranking corrections official told City Journal’s Christopher Rufo that some prisoners were caught using the tablets to find young victims and exchange sexual messages online, and little was done to deter them.
“Why are taxpayers providing prisoners in California IPads to prey on women and minors?” asked Oversight Chairman James Comer on X, Tuesday. “These criminals are behind bars for a reason. I’m demanding answers from Governor Newsom.”
Inmates said they could easily evade detection from the CDCR, and have used the tablets to explore “their basest fantasies and desires,” according to City Journal.
Among the criminals who have reportedly enjoyed access to pornography through the program are serial killers Robert Maury and Samuel Amador and convicted child rapist Nathaniel Ray Diaz.
The House Oversight Committee is demanding documents and communications related to the program from Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) as part of its oversight of federal funds given to California through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Affairs.
“These shocking revelations about prisoner tablet use call into question the federal funds and grants given to California for the specific purpose of reducing crime and rehabilitating criminals, just as California’s prisoner tablet program reportedly achieves the exact opposite purpose,” Comer wrote in his to Newsom demanding documents. “The Committee requests documents and communications to inform its oversight of federal funds given to California through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Affairs.”
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Comer said the Committee is “concerned that California’s programs may be using taxpayer funds to perpetuate sexual violence,” citing the egregious example of child rapist Nathaniel Diaz.
The most apparent example is that of Nathaniel Diaz, convicted in 2023 of sexual crimes against a 12-year-old girl, who, with his state-issued prison tablet, began sexually messaging and exploiting the same underage girl.
Diaz’s indictment also reveals the exceptionally weak safeguards on California’s prisoner tablet program, as in addition to having two accomplices receive and send sexually explicit images of the victim to him, Diaz was somehow able to call the victim thousands of times.
The Oversight Chairman noted that Newsom on May 13 had dismissed claims of inmate abuse of the prison tablet program in a post responding to City Journal’s bombshell report.
Newsom insisted at the time that inmate tablet use was “monitored, recorded, searchable, and investigated.”
“You went even further to claim that ‘these tablets [are] used for education, rehabilitation, family communication, and reentry support proven to reduce crime,’” Comer continued, going on to note that those worthy goals were easily exploited by motivated convicts.
“It is highly concerning, though not surprising, that convicted criminals found various ways around the safety controls on the tablet program, engaged in criminal behavior via the tablets, and consumed, sent, and received child sexual abuse material,” he wrote.
The Chairman demanded that Newsom provide the documents and communications to the Committee no later than June 9, 2026.
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