Ask Corrections Director A.T. Wall about the importance of televisions in keeping prisons peaceful and he will paraphrase an old saying: “Idleness is the devil’s workshop.”

“An idle inmate can pose a security risk,” Wall says. “We want to keep them occupied, and the opportunity to watch television is one way we do it.”

Which is why the Department of Corrections is spending $175,000 between now and Feb. 17 to rewire the Adult Correctional Institutions and make sure the screens of 1,500 inmate televisions don’t all revert to white static when the nation’s broadcasters switch from analog to digital signals.

And that is only one step. The inmates themselves will have to either come up with $69 for a converter box to use on their existing television or buy a new 13-inch television from the prison commissary for $160 (with the see-through plastic back, of course).

While some prisons around the country have subsidized the cost for inmates to stay connected, Wall said “with the state’s current fiscal climate I’m not willing to use taxpayer money to purchase converter boxes for the inmate population.”

Neither is Massachusetts. “No taxpayer funds are being used for inmates’ televisions,” said Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.

The ACI currently has about 3,800 inmates. Some watch television in common areas outside their cells. Others watch television with their cellmates. In minimum security, as many as eight inmates may live in the same dormitory room and share one television, while inmates in old maximum security who have no cellmates have the exclusive choice of what to watch.

That doesn’t mean they have their choice of HBO or Cinemax.

“There is no cable in the prison,” said spokeswoman Tracey Poole. “They don’t get many channels.”

Television is not a luxury in prison, said Wall, but rather an important management tool that can be used to keep the peace and make the jobs of correctional staff easier.

“As a public-safety agency, one of our goals is to prepare people to reintegrate into law-abiding citizens. That process is helped when inmates can keep in touch with developments around the world, so television is an important medium for staying connected to the greater community.”

Watching television is generally a quiet activity as well, said Wall. “When people watch television, they are generally more relaxed, calmer and quieter, and that makes it easier for our staff to manage.”

Poole said inmates “are voracious consumers of television, especially the news.”

Wall doesn’t anticipate any interruption in television service at the prison: “We got on top of the issue early and we’re on track to complete the conversion before the deadline.”

tmooney@projo.com