PennLive/The Patriot-News: “Electronic tablets used for practicing religion, legal research and communication with the outside world were suddenly confiscated from four blocks of Dauphin County Prison last week.

Before then, each person housed in the jail was allowed to have a tablet in their cell, largely for those legally protected uses and sending messages and calling family and friends.

That access ended on Thursday when prison staff confiscated all tablets from people housed in the restricted housing units, P3-P6, PennLive has learned.

The move comes as Dauphin County is being sued by the Abolitionist Law Center after tablets were confiscated in 2023. That class-action lawsuit alleged the conditions in restricted housing units broke federal and state law and violated the incarcerated men’s rights.

In the latest action, anyone moved into segregation is having their tablet confiscated, and can get it back if when they are transferred back out to general population.

In place of the individual devices, residents of the segregation units will now share access to Internet access through one kiosk per block during their block’s scheduled one-hour of recreation time per day.”

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