by Michael Dean Thompson

For people incarcerated in the Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC), communications with the outside world have been getting more difficult. Prisons within Kentucky have been restricting or eliminating tablet use, citing ongoing security concerns due to staffing shortages.

There is no single overriding statewide policy regarding tablet use, so access to loved ones varies even by prison. At the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Kentucky, the prison has disabled phone apps on the tablets and eliminated video calls via the kiosks. The kiosks remain as totems to the past, but the tablets no longer display the apps that gave prisoners access to phones and video calls. Prisoners must instead compete for access at a few wall phones for four 15-minute calls per day with reduced access hours.

The tablets have been a windfall for prison systems across the country. For Kentucky, profit sharing had Securus return $3.2 million in commissions in 2020. Even as Republican President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr spearheaded a vote to rollback limits that the agency set for prison phone calls in 2024, raising the maximum charges, the state of Kentucky—along with Oklahoma and Florida—exceeds the new maximums. [See: PLN, Feb. 2026, p.18.]

Carr told Oklahoma Watch the rate increases were necessary to ensure prison and jail staff could adequately monitor calls. “The [previous FCC] rules have resulted in serious unintended consequences,” Carr said. “For example, by limiting how facilities could recover safety and facility costs, some prisons or jails were forced to scale back or even stop offering calling services altogether.”

According to advocates, there is little evidence this is true. In fact, some states have been granting prisoners access to free calls in recognition of both the importance of communication to rehabilitation and the exploitive nature of exorbitant charges. These include large systems such as California and New York, as well as Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Minnesota. Nevertheless, as Kentucky locks down prisoner access to families, it continues to exceed the FCC’s limits.

The DOC responded to the news outlet Prism’s inquiries, saying it “provides individuals in its custody with opportunities to communicate with family, friends, attorneys and the community through in-person and virtual visitation, written correspondence, telephone calls, and secure electronic messaging.” Yet, according to Prism, some Kentucky prisons no longer even allow in-person visits.

Kentucky’s DOC appears to care more about isolating its prisoners than the restorative and stress-reducing effects of access to external support. Personal testimonies given to Prism indicate that, as you might expect, tensions within the prisons have subsequently risen.  

Source: Prism