Tipsheet

Gavin Newsom Spent $189 Million for CA Prisoners to Watch Adult Content and Solicit Minors

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  May 14, 2026 12:00 PM

A new scandal is emerging out of Gavin Newsom’s California, where the governor spent nearly $200 million providing every inmate in the state prison system, including those on death row, with their own tablet devices. The worst part? Inmates reportedly used the taxpayer-funded tablets to access pornography and even solicit minors over the internet.

According to the Mahattan Institue's City Journal, "The (Newsom) administration heralded the effort to replace inmates’ old tablets—which were piloted in 2018 and given to nearly all prisoners by 2023—as a step toward 'digital equity' for 'justice impacted' individuals, who could, in theory, use the devices to contact their families, consume 'educational' content, and 'learn new technology.'"

In reality, taxpayer-funded tablets have also been used for more lurid endeavors. In this exclusive City Journal investigation, we contacted dozens of death-row inmates, who told us that prisoners in the state system use such devices to watch pornography and have explicit sexual conversations. Some prisoners, according to a former high-ranking California corrections official, use their tablets to groom minors. Though the state has claimed to regulate explicit content, the inmates told us that users can easily evade detection.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation argued to City Journal that the tablets were “tightly controlled education tools” and provided inmates with “access to the Bible, education, and reentry resources that actually reduce crime.” Although the inmates denied those claims, arguing that the tablets were nothing more than tools used to satisfy their personal desires.

Governor Newsom's press office denied the bombshell report.