A reality check on the digitalisation of prisons: Assessing the opportunities and risks of providing digital technologies for prisoners

While our societies are developing into digital information societies, most prisoners do not have access to modern information and communications technologies. Smart prisons that provide digital devices for prisoners aim to grant prisoners more autonomy, provide access to education and information, strengthen contact with relatives and friends and reduce the effects of deprivation. The concept of ‘digital rehabilitation’ suggests that digital devices have a positive effect on rehabilitation in various areas. Nonetheless, technological developments also entail risks that go beyond security concerns such as misuse of the devices by prisoners. Based on qualitative interviews with Austrian prisoners and theoretical reflections on the opportunities and risks of digital technologies in prison, we point out ambivalences and possible negative effects for prisoners that have received little attention so far. We outline the importance of a needs-oriented implementation in order to avoid negative outcomes such as a mere expansion of surveillance, an outsourcing of institutional responsibility, a loss of important social interactions and a deepening of the digital divide within the institution. In this paper, we further contend that the selective digital transformation of prisons can function as a ‘Potemkin façade’ enabling prisons to present themselves as modern without structurally improving the conditions of the majority of the prison population. These risks, which might be less obvious than security concerns, must be taken into account when evaluating and implementing digitalisation strategies.