Gavin Newsom spent $189 million of your money handing free tablets to California's death row killers and rapists.
A former California prison official bet his pension on the crime those tablets are fueling.
What Gutfeld exposed will haunt Gavin Newsom into his 2028 Presidential campaign.
Newsom Called It "Digital Equity" – Prosecutors Call It a Crime
Gavin Newsom handed every one of California's roughly 90,000 state prisoners a free tablet under a $189 million contract sold to the public as a rehabilitation tool.
The California Department of Corrections called the devices "tightly controlled education tools" providing access to "the Bible, education, and reentry resources."
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld had a different read: "What kind of reentry resources are necessary on death row? The only way they will reenter society is when they are dead."
City Journal investigators Christopher Rufo and Haley Strack interviewed a dozen death row inmates who told a very different story.
Convicted sex offender Nathaniel Ray Diaz – already imprisoned at Avenal State Prison for crimes against a 12-year-old girl – allegedly used his state-issued tablet to contact that same child again from his cell.
Prosecutors say Diaz made thousands of calls to the girl and pressured her into sending him sexually explicit images through a co-conspirator. Investigators say the girl told them Diaz forced her to speak with him "for hours, every day" from the time she arrived home from school until the prison phones shut off at midnight.
Newsom's office called the report "flat-out FALSE" and insisted the tablets "DO NOT provide open internet access."
Rufo fired back: "Our sources are a former high-ranking California prison official, federal prosecutors pursuing charges against a prisoner for grooming a minor through his state-issued tablet, and a dozen current inmates enjoying your porn-for-prisoners program."
Newsom Prison Tablet Program Is Grooming Thousands of Children Says Former California Corrections Official
Gutfeld named the absurdity directly: "California corrections claims the screens will be tightly controlled education tools – but it turns out murderers find lesbians more entertaining than Leviticus."
Serial killer Robert Maury – the "Tipster Killer" who strangled three women in the 1980s – told Rufo's investigators that inmates receive nude photos and watch pornography through the devices, and that bypassing restrictions is straightforward: "If you try hard enough, there is always a way around the system."
Death row inmate Samuel Amador – sentenced to death for murder – told the team he alternates between watching pornography in 30-second clips and footage of his family at the beach.
Douglas Eckenrod, former deputy director of California adult parole operations, said he was in the room when the state discussed expanding the tablet program and raised concerns that were brushed aside. He didn't hedge when Rufo asked how wide the damage runs.
"I would bet my pension that there's a vast amount of childhood pornography on the tablets," Eckenrod said. "There are probably several thousand children that are currently being groomed."
He placed the blame directly: "We created a pathway for them to reach out and groom folks. There are going to be victims that didn't need to have been victims because of these decisions."
Gutfeld cut through Newsom's denial with the line Sacramento has no answer for: "Obviously, death row wasn't created to make serial killers comfortable. There is no right to internet porn."
Newsom Is Pressing Forward and Expanding the Program
Gavin Newsom has halted all executions in California, dismantled San Quentin's death row, and converted the notorious prison into what Gutfeld called "summer classrooms and podcast studios – get ready for an hour of hilarious anecdotes about dropping the soap."
The $189 million contract with Securus Technologies includes four one-year extension options that could push the total cost to $315 million.
At least one Democrat legislator is already demanding that inmate messaging be made completely free of charge.
Critically, the Newsom administration designed the program with zero access restrictions based on offense type – child predators, serial rapists, and mass murderers all receive identical tablet access with no age verification on incoming contacts.
Gutfeld tied the California catastrophe together with a line that should be on a billboard outside Sacramento: "Whether it's healthcare for illegals, needles for addicts, or porn for prisoners – compassion is reserved for the ones gaming the system."
Newsom calls the people using $189 million in taxpayer money to prey on children "justice-impacted individuals."
The children they are reaching through those tablets have a different word for it.
Sources:
- Christopher F. Rufo and Haley Strack, "Gavin Newsom Delivers Porn to Death Row Inmates," City Journal, May 13, 2026.
- "California Death Row Inmates Watching Porn on Taxpayer-Funded Tablets, Evading Security Controls," Fox News, May 13, 2026.
- "Newsom Lashes Out at Report of Inmates Using His Tablet Program to Groom Children – and Christopher Rufo Fires Back," Blaze Media, May 14, 2026.
- "Porn for the Condemned: California's Death Row Tablets," Gutfeld! Monologues, Fox News Radio, May 16, 2026.