Address:
2390 Bob Phillips Road
Bartow, FL 33830
Phone:
863-534-6153
The Polk County Central Jail is, or will soon be, offering tablets for inmates to use for phone and visitation communication, as well as for sending and receiving electronic messages. If the tablet service provider for this facility is not listed below, call the jail at 863-534-6153 for more details.
The tablets are not directly connected to the internet. Instead, they connect to a server controlled by Polk County Central Jail, which allows staff to monitor calls and visits, and delay written communication for review.
While the jail may provide the tablet for free, please be aware that there may be fees associated with its ongoing use for entertainment and education purposes.
Scroll down to view the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about renting tablets for inmates at Polk County Central Jail.
Does the Polk County Central Jail have tablets for the inmates to use?
What can the inmates use the tablets for?
Are the jail’s tablets connected to the internet?
How much do the tablets cost to use?
Why do the inmates have access to tablets if they are being punished?
Do inmates have to pay for tablets that they break?
You can find information about the Polk County Central Jail’s tablet program at the top of this page. If there is no information about it, it is because they either have recently changed companies or are not yet providing this service for inmates. Call 863-534-6153 to confirm.
Inmates in jails and prisons are using tablets for all the communication services available such as video visitation, video phone calls, regular phone calls, and electronic messaging – which is like texting and email.
Tablets are also used for entertainment, such as watching movies, television shows, listening to music and reading e-books. It is also used for education, self-help information, and legal research.
No, they are not connected to the internet. All the messages, visits and programming goes through a system controlled by the company that provides the tablets, and through the jail. They control what each inmate sees. All messages are carefully screened and not delivered if the sender or the inmate violates jail policy.
For accessing visits and messages, the tablets are free to use. Each unit has many of them, all provided by the company that has contracted with the jail. Of course, the video visits and messages have a fee and those are paid for by the inmate’s family and friends who use the service.
That’s the question a lot of people ask and don’t fully understand.
The way the jail staff looks at it, is that if they can keep the inmates busy and distracted, it makes it safer for them.
Tablets also give them a certain power over controller an inmate’s behavior. For example, if an inmate knows that they will lose the privilege of having access to a tablet if they get into a fight or violate another rule or policy, they will be better behaved.
Tablets are one of the few things that make an inmate feel as though they are free, and they don’t want to lose the privilege of having access to one.
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Yes, if an inmate breaks a tablet, then they are responsible for paying for it. The money will come out of their commissary funds, so not only do they lose access to having a tablet as punishment, but they also won’t be able to purchase snacks on commissary.
