The use of technologies and the digital capacity of prisons across the globe continues to gain pace. An increasing number of prison services are developing digital rehabilitative programmes and digital solutions in the area of security, often supported by regional and national policy and legislation.
This expansion has been evidenced in a recent global review of 22 prison systems on ‘digital maturity’, which concluded that developments are complex and influenced by the level of readiness to provide digital services for people in prison. The study explained that key drivers to digitally mature prisons include active efforts to design solutions that are centred on the needs of people in prisons, including staff, as well as cross-organisation strategies and partnerships, including with the commercial sector. Testing and evaluating outcomes of using technology were also indicators of prisons being ‘digitally mature’.
There is emerging evidence of the importance of users’ perceptions and attitudes to technology in prisons.
In Finland, for example, research identified that lack of trust is a barrier to use, but the age of a user of technology is not. In the US it was found that positive attitudes of staff towards technology facilitated the uptake of technology by the people they supervise.
Examples of harms of digital technology used in places of detention continue to be reported. For example, the Center for Prisoners Rights, a Japanese NGO, reported in 2022 that people on death row are sometimes held in solitary confinement monitored 24 hours a day by CCTV with no measures in place to ensure privacy for using the toilet or changing clothes.
Recognition of such harms corresponding to the expansion in the use of digital technology by criminal justice sectors (and all sectors of life) has seen increasing attention and the development of regulations at regional and international levels to provide guidance and limitations. For example, the Council of Europe is developing recommendations on the use of Artificial Intelligence in prisons, and the UN is launching an exploration of digital rehabilitation for prisons. The EU is making efforts to regulate AI through the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). This has seen calls from civil society for explicit prohibitions of predictive and profiling AI systems in law enforcement and criminal justice.
The increase in virtual hearings since 2020 in all regions has sparked widespread concern about the right to a fair trial.
Particularly in the global south, the use of virtual hearings as well as video calls with family is expanding at a significant pace, somewhat propelled by the restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in India sixteen prisons have replaced face to face court appearances with virtual hearings. In Lebanon, UNODC supported the installation of 17 remote e-hearing systems, including 14 in selected courts, detention facilities and prisons. The increase in virtual hearings since 2020 in all regions has sparked widespread concern about the right to a fair trial. Research in Brazil has shown that virtual custody hearings are more likely to impact black and female detainees, since ‘physically seeing and hearing the arrested person brings justice operators closer to the reality of people in custody’, and furthermore virtual hearings make it more difficult for judges to identify signs of torture.
The benefits of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) has recently been evidenced in European prisons. For people who have committed violent crimes such as Intimate Partner Violence, a study proved that it improved their thinking skills, ability to empathise, practice positive social skills and increase their motivation to engage in rehabilitation. VR has also been incorporated into a suite of tools to support radicalisation risk assessments in seven European countries, and in Spain a pilot project in Lledoners Penitentiary Center has been set up to use VR in rehabilitation for a range of criminal behaviours.297 In Finland, as part of their Smart Prisons project, VR is being used by psychologists in rehabilitative individual work with the people in their care. The VR experience includes a virtual forest to boost well-being and relaxation, with reportedly positive results for people who use drugs.
Technologies to maintain security of prisons are also continually being developed. Prisons in Ecuador have introduced security systems which include Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition, in response to increased and fatal violence (see Security and violence). Similarly, in Panama’s La Joya prison, less invasive monitoring has been introduced such as mobile phone blockers, body scanning equipment and use of biometrics. There is also research pointing to the use of technologies in efforts to detect drugs, especially psychoactive substances like cannabinoids and other NPS, which remain difficult to detect.