How can digital innovation support prisoner rehabilitation and improve prison operations? This presentation explores the transformative impact of smart technologies within the correctional system, drawing on a unique case study from Türkiye. The "Integration of Smart Technologies into Prisons (ACEP)" project introduces biometric systems, multimedia booths, and video-call infrastructure to enhance inmate access to digital services and maintain meaningful connections with the outside world.
Backed by field data collected in 2022 and 2023 - including surveys with convicts, interviews with correctional staff and developers, and direct onsite observations - the study reveals the real-world outcomes of digitalization behind bars. Key findings demonstrate improvements in inmate communication, rehabilitation opportunities, and administrative efficiency.
By combining human rights considerations with operational goals, the project offers valuable insights for correctional institutions worldwide exploring similar technological transitions. Findings from the study provide a deeper understanding of how the use of digital technologies can improve the effectiveness of the correctional system for offenders, their families and staff by addressing many challenges simultaneously.
Moderated by Simon Bonk, Chair, Technology Solutions Network, ICPA, Canada
×
Assoc. Prof. Derya Gultekin
Senior Lecturer, Istanbul Technical University, Türkiye
Derya Gultekin is an associate professor of economics at the Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Management, Türkiye. She holds a PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research areas include tobacco control and the tobacco industry, social care, labor policy, digital prisons & prisoner well-being, and issues on financial markets & development, such as sovereign ratings, banking reforms, pension systems, and foreign direct investment. Some of her works have been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Social Policy and Administration, BMC Public Health, Journal of Environment and Development, Global Public Health, New Perspectives on Turkey, Social Enterprise Journal, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education and Emerging Markets Finance and Trade.
×
Sevcan Ozturk-Kilic
Research and Teaching Assistant, Istanbul Technical University, Türkiye
Sevcan Ozturk-Kilic is a PhD student in the Management program at the Graduate School of Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Türkiye. She graduated from the Bosphorus University Department of Economics in 2015 and received a master's degree in Financial Economics at Istanbul Bilgi University in 2021. Ozturk-Kilic worked in the Turkish financial sector for five years and is currently a research assistant at the ITU. Her research interests are in the areas of statistics, behavioral economics, well-being, care services and silver economy, and the economics of happiness.
