Idaho Prisoners Hack Tablets and Steal Nearly a Quarter of a Million Dollars in Credits
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zmkzg9/idaho-prisoners-hack-tablets-and-steal-nearly-a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars-in-credits
Jail sucks, and inmates are often vulnerable to abuse and exploitation from forces both inside and outside the prison. JPay, for example, offers a clear plastic tablet called the JP5 to inmates who can then use them to watch movies, listen to music, play games, and send emails. But those small freedoms come at a heavy cost. Last year, for instance, inmates in the New York prison system received free tablets only to have the company charge them $.35 to send an email, $9 for 30 minutes of video chat, and overcharge for movies, books, and music.
Typically, a loved one or an associate on the outside deposits money into a prisoner’s JPay account, which they then use as credits to buy JPay’s various price-gouging services. According to the Associated Press, Idaho prison officials discovered earlier this month that a group of 364 inmates figured out how to hack the system to give themselves as many credits as they wanted, avoiding the high cost of using a tablet while incarcerated.