As reported by crimeinamerica.net, "An estimated 4.7 million adults were under correctional community supervision in the United States on December 31, 2014," which is an absolutely staggering amount of people that are under probation or parole or similar. Not too surprisingly, most people in a position of incarceration or the threat of incarceration will sign up for just about anything that the government insists upon in regards to restrictions and access in order to have "freedom" or a modified version of freedom on the outside by being released, rather than being kept locked up. In some communities, and States, there are restrictions or outright prohibitions for parolees in regards to the access to the internet, in a time in which any smart-phone, tablet, laptop, play station, and similar devices can access the internet readily, and in an era in which many job sites no longer accepting applications except through online forms, and/or employment jobs are basically only listed online, this restriction or prohibition seems to be out-of-touch with reality.
The most basic problem with outright bans of internet access to parolees is that it limits or precludes said parolees from being able to access information or to stay in contact with people and opportunities, so that they are at an expressed material disadvantage to other people, no matter how motivated they are to become productive and gainfully employed citizens of America. It's one thing to setup monitoring software on a parolee's computer or for governmental authorities to have access to email or other social media sites of the parolee for the purpose of verifying and confirming that the parolee is not operating outside the law, but it's an entirely different thing to simply ban it, as a condition of a given parole.
The fact is virtually all parolees are willing to sacrifice some liberty for the opportunity to be on the outside but it isn't fair to take away necessary and vital tools that are part and parcel of modern life, to a person that will be handicapped enough already, just trying to find something to legally do that provides real worth. The critics that provide the impetus for the restriction and prohibition of the internet for certain law breakers, in particular those that have been convicted as sex offenders, seem to as a matter of course, want to punish such offenders for an unending period of time, whereas once a convicted felon has completed his time behind bars, that person should not be then judged guilty of future crimes, when they haven't done anything material in the first place that reflects that charge.
in addition, many of the people that are currently under correctional supervision have in common that they are poorly educated, substance abusers, lacking self-control, and with a poor family structure background, so in reality, their biggest crime they have committed is having been born into compromised circumstances. Far be it for America, rather than making their lives even more difficult, by denying them the internet or mandating other insensible and unreasonable restrictions, should take it upon itself, to willingly provide the tools to these parolees that will enable them to have a decent fair chance, so that they too can pursue happiness.