JPAY REQUIRES PRISONERS TO PURCHASE NEW TABLETS TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS IDOC POLICY, GAMES OR EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS

For months, hundreds of IDOC prisoners have been locked down to various degrees due to the coronavirus pandemic. In an effort to mitigate the frustrations associated with the changes made throughout the system and provide mandatory access to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), IDOC administrators have worked with JPay to provide prisoners with educational videos, tablet-based games, the ability to download videograms to tablets over Wifi, and most importantly, the ability to review IDOC policies and procedures. Unfortunately, most prisoners - even those who have tablets - do not have access to these apps.

Prisoners who own tablets which are more than a year old have complained to JPay for quite some time that games they have purchased are not available to play on their tablet. When the educational videos were introduced, they too were unavailable to these prisoners and no amount of complaining has helped. JPay denies that these media won't download and they are correct, the software does download to the tablet, (taking up critical memory space) but because there is no (app) icon to launch the videos or games on the tablet, the fact that they do actually download is of no consequence - they can't be accessed.

When software updates were made to tablets in August 2020 to make SOPs and videograms (WiFi downloads) available on tablets, the same issue remains - tablets more than a year old or so cannot access these features. When legal materials become available in the near future, prisoners with these tablets will most likely be faced with the same dilemma.

In a Trouble Ticket to JPay (ICC 173031), ISCC prisoner Dale Shackelford described the problem with accessing the games, videos and SOPs on his tablet due to the lack of an app icon. In response, a JPay representative wrote (typos, bad grammar and all):

"Hello Dale

Thank you for contacting JPay We understand your concerns with your JPay Media Services and are happy to assist you however your JP5 is currently 'out of warranty' we can troubleshoot your player we would like to reset your tablet. When the player is reset the tablet will reset to the manufacture credentials '8282'. If all troubleshooting measures fail then you would have to purchase a new player to continue enjoying your music. Please reply confirming that you understand and agree to this and we will enable the option for you. Kind regards, David."

First, Dale has no problem accessing the music on his tablet (though frankly, he hasn't tried to download music in many months so maybe there is a problem with his music he just doesn't know about yet). Second, there is nothing wrong with the tablet (or the tablets of hundreds of other prisoners suffering the same issues), and Dale has loaded every JPay firmware update as required. Third, this is a simple matter of JPay not testing their coding with tablets that were sold to prisoners more than a year ago before pushing updates to the kiosks, thus forcing prisoners to purchase new tablets to be able to access even basic apps.

The lack of action by JPay to resolve this (coding / update) issue without the need for manufacturer's resets (which do not resolve the problem as evidenced by 2 other prisoners recently having gone through the exact same process for the exact same reasons) will more likely than not result in the need for hundreds of prisoners to purchase new tablets. This is unconscionable and IDOC / CenturyLink cannot allow the matter to go on without review of why this widespread and systemic problem has not yet been resolved.

If your friends or family are incarcerated in the IDOC, own a tablet and are having these same problems, contact JPay through their website at JPay.com, and the CenturyLink Contracts manager at IDOC Central Office to voice your concerns.

_____________________
Information about the inside - from the inside. Have your family and friends visit or subscribe to the Idaho Prison Blog today - log on to: www.idahoprisonblog.blogspot.com - it's FREE!