Let's say you are in prison for online fraud. You get internet access. You'll continue to fraud.
Meanwhile, we have private companies profiting off of exploitatively-priced communications services for inmates, when both they and their families are often in little position to pay the excessive charges:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/republican-led-f...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/technology/fcc-prison-pho...
The best (if not most profitable) solution, IMHO, is to offer inmates a low cost to free, monitored telephone service that they can use to call people on a white-list. If they're found to be abusing it, it can be taken away, but it should be otherwise unlimited.
Oh, that. We don't care about reintegration. We don't care if they survive outside of prison. And with what little educational abilities have been destroyed, are we surprised in the least that they go back to criminal actions to make money?
I'm not saying the current system - which is very exploitative of inmates, with extremely expensive calls - is anywhere near OK. But that doesn't mean you can't have provide inmates with decent communication accessibilities without having uncontrolled cellphones with them.
Don't get me wrong, I do agree that the US justice system is focused on punishment instead of revalidation and there's a lot that can be improved there, but this is about giving people who have a problem access to that which enabled their problem.