Wednesday 22 August 2007

Inmates with laptops

New Jersey inmates are the first in the country to have access to laptop computers that they can use in their cells to do legal research. The Bergen County Jail is rolling out 80 laptops for use by the jail's 1,000 inmates according to a report in the North Jersey Record.
The laptops will allow the prisoners to use Westlaw for legal research. Prison officials say that this addresses a safety issue - every time inmates are allowed to go to the jail library to use Westlaw there is a risk. "There's a risk each time you open a cell door," said Bergen Sheriff Leo P. McGuire, "and our library was getting too busy."
The extra-rugged 3 lb. laptops are manufactured by Psion Teklogix of Canada.

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