Digital Prisons: An Oxymoron or a Necessity for Rehabilitation and Successful Reintegration of Returning Citizens? (PID028)

1.45pm – 2.20pm EDT, 23 April 2024 ‐ 35 mins

Room: Meeting Room 10

Parallel Workshop Session

The fact is prisoners are being left behind, digitally speaking, and are likely to struggle with keeping up with the fast-advancing digital society when released. Current practices in prisoner rehabilitation, education/ skills/ work provisions and resettlement planning tend to be offline. Yet, this approach has been shown to narrow the scope of rehabilitation opportunities in prison particularly those that require and/ or could benefit from Information and Communications Technology e.g. education. While technology is slowly making its way into some prisons, its use tends to be for administration or communication. However, without the necessary digital literacy skills and access to ICT in prisons, scholars believe this makes former prisoners more susceptible to reoffending. So how can prisons pivot to become digital prisons? What can they do to improve digital literacy skills in prisons? This session suggests some innovative approaches to improving digital literacy skills in prison.