In January 2025, men in New Jersey State Prison were notified that the state prison system would be switching our communication system from JPay to Viapath Technologies. 

Some of us were excited about the switch. We had heard ViaPath offered more services, including the ability to use our electronic tablets to make phone calls. Others were upset because we were going to lose all of the content we bought through the JPay system and stored on our tablets. But at that time, none of us thought about losing access to our grievances. 

By switching communication providers, the New Jersey Department of Corrections upended the system that incarcerated people in the state had used for more than a decade to file and maintain institutional grievances. People inside rely on these electronic paper trails to prove they’ve done their due diligence and exhausted all administrative remedies to an alleged problem — a requirement before filing a lawsuit. The changeover has been far from smooth, deterring or preventing people from even accessing their grievance process in the first place.

In July, an incarcerated man in New Jersey filed a civil rights lawsuit to block prison officials from forcing people to hand over their electronic tablets that had media such as photos and music stored on them. In statements filed in support of the lawsuit, other incarcerated people raised the issue of lost grievances. 

At the time, NJDOC spokesperson Chris Greeder told the New Jersey Monitor that the prison system had reached an agreement with tablet vendors to transfer digital media to the new tablets, but was still working to acquire historical records of grievances. 

Ever since the switchover, we have struggled to access old grievances and file new ones. Men I spoke to for this article told me they cannot appeal denied grievances that occurred before the change. In other words, the paper trail is dead. Beyond that, some of the grievances men filed around the time of the changeover were left on “read” and unanswered in the old system, which meant that the process had never even started. 

In an email to a Prison Journalism Project editor, Greeder said: “NJDOC continues to work with our new vendor to restore access to past electronic grievances.” He added that the department “maintained careful records of all grievances submitted before, during, and after the transition to preserve documentation throughout the changeover.”

Carl Holdren, who was responsible for representing our unit and our unit’s grievances during monthly meetings with the administration, said that two of his grievances were left on read. 

One of his unanswered grievances was about music he purchased that wouldn’t download to his new tablet. The other unanswered one concerned New Jersey State Prison still using COVID-19 protocols to limit the amount of visitors allowed at one time in the prison visitation hall. 

Holdren said the music purchases amounted to a loss of only a couple of dollars. But the visit situation has caused his family significant stress. 

“My family members can’t be spontaneous and just pop up and visit me,” Holdren said. 

Michael Doce, who also lives on our unit, recalled writing grievances months before the switch. One was about the extreme heat at our facility, when an air-conditioned part of the prison blew hot air out of the vents during the summer. At night it became worse, Doce said.

“It felt like all of the heat from the day just collected in my cell and sat there all night,” Doce said. 

His grievances have been ignored, he said. Doce said he wrote to the prison system’s central office and has not received a response. 

Finally, he wrote a grievance in August 2026 on the ViaPath system about the past unanswered grievances from the old JPay system. He received an automated response that thanked him and said his message would be forwarded to the proper person. Later, he received a response to his question stating that there was no way to respond to information submitted on JPay. 

In his email, Greeder defended the change-over process.

“Throughout this transition, the Department took proactive measures to ensure uninterrupted access,” he said. “Staff and vendor representatives provided on-site guidance during tablet distribution, issued digital training materials, and provided instructions for resubmitting pending claims.”

The department continues to” “seamlessly” receive, track, and respond to grievances through the new platform without interruptions, Greeder insisted. “Paper grievance forms also remain available as an alternative to electronic submissions,” he added.

In reality, the new system has worked only occasionally. Doce said it took him a full 36 minutes to log into the new grievances app and write a grievance. As for me, I still haven’t been able to write a grievance. I have wanted to file complaints about not receiving snail mail that was sent to the prison.

Holdren said ViaPath let him into the app and allowed him to type the grievance, but he was never able to submit it. 

“The ViaPath system barely ever works,” Holdren said. 

When some of us asked about these problems, we were told through our tier liaison to submit what’s called an “inquiry” first. But submitting an inquiry is just as frustrating. When I tried, I filled out all of the sections on the form. When I went to submit, a red asterisk appeared indicating that additional fields may be required. I had to try multiple times to get it to go through, but I still haven’t received a response. It’s deflating. 

“It’s a created flaw in the system to deter people from writing grievances,” Holdren said.

Without a functioning system to address wrongs, people start to feel like there is no use in complaining about staff abuse, maintenance failures, too few visits, medical problems and other grievances. They lose faith in the system and fall into despair. I’ve heard men here say they won’t write up a perceived injustice because they felt that no one would do anything about it.