Jorge Luis Alvarado, a New Jersey prisoner writing for the Prison Journalism Project (PJP), compares the situation to “1985, where we rely on out-of-date word processors, electric typewriters and floppy disks”.

Prisoners in New Jersey State Prison are not allowed to bring modern USB flash drives to their cells, but are allowed to keep up to 20 floppy disks, he reports.

When lawyers send USB drives to prisoners, they are forced to submit special requests to review them in a private area of the prison’s law library, which take days to process.

The rules mean prisoners tend to rely on floppy disks, which store only 1.44MB of data, are easily corrupted, and are not widely available as they are no longer being manufactured.

“With so many new, efficient technologies available, we could easily do our legal work in our cells if the prison allowed it,” Mr Alvarado writes.

“We could use restricted laptops (without internet), or maybe even our electronic tablets, to review and work on legal documents without having to wait days for law library access.

“New Jersey State Prison is one of the oldest prisons in the United States, with a sign outside that announces: ‘Built in 1835.’

“But those of us who live inside it are trying to enter the modern world, so we can reliably do the important work of advocating for our freedom.”