The study explores how technological innovation, especially artificial intelligence, has influenced the relationship between technology and human presence in the Hungarian prison system. Although AI appears new, automation has long affected decision-making in corrections. Using archival documents from the 1980s, professional experience, and qualitative interviews with prisoners and staff, the research investigates how technology shaped daily institutional practices and perceptions of reintegration.
Findings reveal that from the 1980s onward, Hungary experimented with automation inspired by U.S. models, such as remotely operated cell doors, central communication systems, and motion sensors. While these aimed to reduce staff workload and enhance efficiency, they soon weakened communication, trust, and security, ultimately undermining reintegration. Similar patterns reappeared with later technologies, including mobile phone signal detectors in the 2000s and data-based predictive assessment tools in the 2010s. In each case, technological efficiency gains came at the cost of reduced human interaction and eroded institutional trust.
These lessons are increasingly relevant amid today’s “smart prison” initiatives, where AI-driven surveillance, behavioral monitoring, and automated systems again promise efficiency through reduced human presence. The research concludes that although such tools can optimize operations, they risk damaging the interpersonal, ethical, and psychological foundations essential to humane and effective corrections.
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Dr Laszlo Huszar
Senior Lecturer, ELTE Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary
Laszlo has 29-year experience with the Hungarian Prison Service. More than 15 years in senior management positions (prison governor, deputy director general, head of research, planning, evaluation and strategy units, prison intelligence. He had substantive role in policy and legislation development concerning (among others) prison security, risk assessment, categorization. He also has extensive international experience as corrections adviser in Iraq, Head of EUJUST-LEX Mission in Iraq, senior correctional advisor in Pristina, Kosovo. He is the developer of Hostage negotiation and extreme stress coping training and conducted these training as the training director.
Laszlo has remained active as a sociology researcher throughout his career and returned to academia after leaving the Prison Service. His teaching subject’s cover : social psychology, sociology of organizations, total institutions ( including prisons), sociology of deviant behaviors, criminology.
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Dr Titanilla Fiath
Assistant Professor, ELTE Eotvos University, Hungary
Titanilla Fiáth, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Social Psychology at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Trained as both a clinical psychologist and cultural anthropologist, she has extensive experience working in Hungarian prisons and leading therapeutic programs for offenders. As a Fulbright scholar, she conducted participant observation in U.S. special prison units, and has facilitated group sessions in prisons in Peru and Colombia. Her research and teaching focus on prison psychology, deviance, and the cultural dimensions of punishment.
