Prison can create a digital divide. Advocates want to change that.

Boston Globe
August 5, 2025
Katie Johnson

For Mac Hudson, being released from prison after 33 years was a shock to the system in almost every way. And one of the biggest hurdles involved technology.

When Hudson was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for second-degree murder when he was 17, the internet was in its infancy. When he emerged in 2022, he had no idea how to use a smartphone, let alone how to navigate Google Maps or search online job listings.

“I was completely lost,” Hudson said.

Digital access has expanded rapidly in Massachusetts county jails and state prisons in the last two years. Everyone who is incarcerated is now assigned a tablet with access to online classes and vocational training programs, phone calls and email, and movies and music. But advocates say more needs to be done to upgrade correctional facilities’ technology infrastructure and equip those serving time with the skills needed to thrive in today’s rapidly changing world.

And the prison telecommunications industry, currently dominated by a handful of private-equity-backed companies, is ripe for disruption.

Read more at: Bostonglobe.com.