Haley Strack

Reporter @CityJournal; formerly @NRO. Opinions mine.

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

Excited to join @christopherrufo and @CityJournal's new California team to (hopefully) answer a question the magazine posed years ago: Can California be golden again?

Looking forward to uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse in my home state.

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

@GovPressOffice Actually, I am a journalist who has exposed you for giving free sex-change surgeries to trans migrants, free solar panels to illegal aliens, and free porn-enhanced iPads to state prisoners. And I’m just getting started.

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

The Right can't give up on the Pacific Northwest. The early Americans explored it. The pioneers settled it. And we aren't going to give it up.

Olympic National Forest with our new family dog, Jack London.

[Jesse Arm @Jesse_Leg]

Should be fun 🤠

Catch me on CNN at 10PM ET

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

The title of your article is literally "California inmate accused of calling and sexually messaging a child on prison tablet."

[7News DC @7NewsDC]

About three years ago, tablets were given to inmates in the California state prison system to provide access to educational materials and increase communication with loved ones outside prison.
https://t.co/2t1W7XJPVx

[Brian Anderson @BrianAcity]

California spends $24 million teaching Native Americans how to light a fire. You read that right. The state’s “Tribal Wildfire Resilience” grants have funded, inter alia, drumming rituals, sage blessings, spotted-owl monitoring, summer-camp renovations, and $1 million for forest-themed ingredients at tribe-owned restaurants. The tribes self-certify their own burn leaders based on “cultural experience.” Everyone else, though, must complete the state’s 40-hour professional course. Chris Rufo and Austen Hufford with their third piece this week on California progressive policy absurdity--all funded by taxpayers. https://t.co/jZJXAmo3Sq

[Steve Hilton For Governor @TeamSteveHilton]

Gavin Newsom just blew $189 MILLION in taxpayer cash on tablets for death row killers—so they can harass victims and binge on porn from their cells while the rest of California burns.

This is what “smart on crime” looks like under Newsom: luxury devices for the worst monsters in the state, zero accountability, and victims be damned.

Time to end this clown show and boot Newsom out of Sacramento.

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

A California inmate is on trial right now for grooming a 12-year-old on his state-funded tablet.

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

@RepJamesComer @GOPoversight Sorry Chair. You have been duped by a MAGA “think tank” that repeatedly can’t get their facts right and takes the word of serial killers on death row.

HERE ARE THE FACTS
https://t.co/YcKY5mgKh8

[Heritage Foundation @Heritage]

California has spent nearly $189 million on iPads for prisoners, which they are using to watch pornography. Meanwhile, the state doesn’t have enough space to keep its prisoners locked up, so it is releasing many back into the public, creating more victims.

@tzsmith

[Oversight Committee @GOPoversight]

🚨 BREAKING: We are investigating California’s taxpayer-funded prison tablet program after reports that inmates used them to sexually exploit women and minors.

Chairmen @RepJamesComer, @RepBrandonGill, and @RepTimBurchett are demanding answers from Gov. Newsom @CAgovernor. 👇🏻

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

EXCLUSIVE: Earlier this month, we reported that California prison inmates were using state-issued iPads to watch porn, have explicit video chats, and groom minors on the outside. Now, the House Oversight Committee is demanding documents from Gavin Newsom.

This is a scandal.

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

Sure, doubt our sources when you’re the one who gave convicted murderers access to unrestricted communication devices.

A man is literally awaiting trial right now in California for using his prison tablet to groom a kid and receive child porn. Were you monitoring those communications too?

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

This is flat-out FALSE.

This MAGA nonprofit provides ZERO evidence for its outrageous claims.

Their “sources”? Convicted murderers and a random guy who doesn’t even live in California.

FACT: Prison tablets DO NOT provide open internet access.

FACT: Communications are monitored, recorded, searchable, and investigated.

FACT: These tablets are are used for education, rehabilitation, family communication, and reentry support proven to reduce crime — conveniently omitted from this propaganda post.

[Brandon Fuller @fuller_brandon]

New @CityJournal exclusive from @christopherrufo and @StrackHaley: California gave free internet-connected tablets to every single prisoner — zero restrictions based on offense type.

Rapists. Child predators. Serial killers. No restrictions on communications with the public - violent predators can and do contact minors.

Questions for the Governor:
Why no restrictions on tablet access by offense type?
Who signed off on zero age restrictions for inmate contacts?
Will the state extend the program after documented child exploitation?

https://t.co/I1euJr8MVW

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

Serial killer Robert Maury, a prisoner on California's death row, tells us that inmates are using state-issued digital tablets to watch porn. "If you try hard enough, there is always a way around the system."

This is Gavin Newsom's "porn for prisoners" scandal.

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

California death row inmate Sammy Amador tells us that more than half of the men in his prison are watching porn on state-issued digital tablets. "You get 30-second clips ... you can get your family barbecuing, porn, whatever."

Gavin Newsom's "porn for prisoners" scandal.

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

EXCLUSIVE: California spent nearly $189 million to give every state prisoner a free iPad. We interviewed a dozen death row inmates, who told us that prisoners are using the tablets to watch porn, engage in x-rated chats, and groom minors on the outside.
https://t.co/bpmvDB6vPm

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

California prisoners are watching porn, grooming minors, and sexting on taxpayer-funded tablets.

Don't believe us? Hear it from death-row inmates themselves, and a former CDCR director who warned officials YEARS ago about the potential for abuse: https://t.co/RqmOTUIumR

[Christina Buttons @buttonslives]

Gavin Newsom used California’s youth mental-health crisis to build a $15+ billion therapeutic bureaucracy rooted in the idea that “white supremacy” was driving children’s distress, while taxpayers nationwide help fund it.

In 2021, Newsom launched the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), the $4.7 billion centerpiece of his Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health. It was sold as a response to “severe outcomes”: rising hospitalizations for self-harm and suicidality among children.

But he handed the reins to progressive activists, who identified “racism” and “white supremacy” as root causes of mental illness and substance abuse. The result was a statewide equity agenda centered on “prevention”: screening, data collection, and the medicalization of children who were not driving the crisis.

California is now turning K–12 schools into mental-health service sites. Students can receive therapy or psychiatric diagnoses during school hours, billed to insurance.

Normal school anxiety is now “medically necessary” for services.

Parents may not even know. A new law allows “mature” minors 12 and older to consent to treatment, and state guidance says “parents are not to be contacted.”

CYBHI funds mental-health screening programs for toddlers and social-emotional learning during class time with an “explicit equity and social justice lens.”

It also funds “community-defined evidence practices (CDEPs),” which made programs that introduce students to progressive activism and “gender-affirming” services eligible for public money.

California spent $5 billion expanding Medi-Cal to cover social services like rent, groceries, and housing deposits, unlocking federal matching funds, so taxpayers nationwide help subsidize it.

Not enough funding was reserved for treatment beds. So in 2024, Newsom returned to voters with Prop. 1, a $6.4 billion bond, but much of that money was directed to homeless housing under a Housing First model.

California still lacks sufficient psychiatric treatment beds, and some children travel hundreds of miles to access care.

Children like Jázmin Pellegrini cycled through 10 facilities on 40 occasions. She was placed in an unlocked facility instead of secure residential treatment, ran away, and was found dead on the streets of San Francisco soon after.

Newsom invoked children like Jázmin to declare a youth mental-health crisis. They remain the most neglected by the system he built, while healthier children are turned into mental-health patients.

Read my latest investigation for @CityJournal:
https://t.co/ECFAO8UvFk

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

@RSuff23 @christopherrufo This completely misses the point.

Other states updated their systems and had problems with the rollouts, sure. But those states didn't throw their hands up, scrap a system that was already built, and squander $450 million.

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

Another failed promise.

[Governor Gavin Newsom @CAgovernor]

It’s critical that California build a “next generation” emergency response system with text and data capabilities. And now we’re doing it.
https://t.co/6e0Pk8sDcu

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

EXCLUSIVE: Gavin Newsom spent $450 million on a new 911 system. The initial rollout was such a disaster, state officials decided to scrap the program. Now, call centers are experiencing rolling blackouts—and are at risk of "catastrophic failure."
https://t.co/JNJNWBLZc5