I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask, "why can't inmates have a computer?"

I mean, if it's not hooked up to the Internet, who cares? It's not a dangerous weapon. It's basically a fancy book and writing device. Maybe some games.

If prisoners are looking at porn and playing offline computer games why does that matter? They're not out in society committing crimes. They're just entertaining themselves with harmless activities.

I guess I'm firmly in the camp of, "the reason to put someone in prison is because they couldn't behave out in society" (for whatever reason/crime). Not to torture them with boredom for n months/years.

If someone is a career criminal, I have zero faith in the system to "reform" them. It assumes there's something wrong with them that needs to be fixed. When everyone knows that there's loads of people in prison that don't belong there. That are absolutely zero danger to society.

IMHO, a "reformed" prisoner is one that was never going to be commit the same crimes again anyway. When the system makes such claims it's just patting itself on the back, trying to justify its existence.

Example: Like we're going to "reform" someone who got addicted to pain killers. As if it was a simple behavioral problem.