Internet for prisoners

I'd have to say no, they don't need it. Sure, they're humans and all, but they're still behind bars for a reason (even if it's not for murder or grand larceny).

Prison life for the most part (at least in America), has never been better than ever before. In the Roman Empire for example, prisoners didn't even get fed, they'd have to rely on compassionate people to give them food, otherwise they'd just starve to death.

I once took a tour of a prison when I was in the National Guard, because my unit was the "back-up" unit in case the guards all went on strike (or there was a prison riot, and the guards and all their back-up needed more help), in which case we were to be the guards to keep the prisoners in check.

From what I saw (I think it was a medium security prison), they got access to schooling, gyms, religious functions, tv's (albeit not a personal one), etc. I noticed that while they were playing ball, if the ball fell out of the court, they couldn't go get it, they had to wait for a guard to throw it back to them (not sure why, unless it was to prevent them from passing stuff along the ground or something).

Prisoners have enough stuff to keep them busy. They don't need taxpayers to spend money on getting computers and then internet access for them.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be against them having video games. I'm sure it would occupy them for a long period of time (and hopefully no violence erupts from it because some guy lost a match), and I'd rather they're playing a game than thinking about how to rob the next guy when they get out.

Jam it back in, in the dark.