CANTON – St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility inmates now have a new way to keep in touch with their family, order commissary and file grievances.

The St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility now has wireless Telmate Tablets for inmates.

“I am truly excited about this technology and the tablet program with Telmate,” said Officer Rodney Votra, Programs Director for St. Lawrence. “It saves us so much footwork that I can’t believe we didn’t have tablets a long time ago.”

With the tablets, St. Lawrence County gains an increase in security, control and operational efficiencies, Votra says. The tablet’s messaging system means a reduction in physical mail and related contraband issues, while paperless grievances, requests, and commissary ordering reduce expensive staff time and human error. Also, the tablet features a law library that minimizes the need for escorted inmate movement within the facility.

“Prior to tablets,” said Votra, “all inmate requests had to be handwritten and forms had to be supplied to the inmates, including legal requests.” He explained that now it’s as simple as an officer answering requests by just logging onto a computer, asking the inmate questions and getting answers back.

Telmate Tablets are linked to Telmate Verified, an automated identity verification system that authenticates every system user and action including deposits, photos and messages; and Telmate Investigator, an advanced suite of crime solving tools that gives investigators valuable insights into the personal networks of inmates.

Not only do tablets benefit the facility, they also benefit inmates and their friends and family.

With tablets, inmates gain an additional, modern way to stay in touch and connect with the outside through a variety of means such as secure messaging, photos and content. Tablets also feature a range of entertainment and education content that improve inmate well-being by helping turn idle, stressful time into positive time.

In addition, tablets streamline many inmate services by giving them access to digital commissary ordering, crime tips, PREA reports, paperless grievances and requests.

Votra says St. Lawrence also is excited to use the Telmate Tablets as an effective inmate behavior modification tool. In current tablet installations around the country inmates are behaving better for the privilege of using the devices.

Telmate Tablets have been in the field for over three years, are currently deployed in nearly 70 correctional facilities nationwide, and generating over 10 million minutes of monthly usage. Telmate is a national leader in inmate communications solutions.

The St. Lawrence County tablet implementation is part of Telmate’s partnership with Trinity Services Group, Inc., the nation's largest provider of food service and commissary.