Category: The Labour Market

Digital Exclusion of Prisoners in England and Wales

03/04/2023 

Background

As modern society has rapidly advanced into the digital age, many marginalised groups have become increasingly excluded through a lack of digital access and skill. Among these digitally excluded groups are prisoners, who have little or no access to digital technologies and the internet. As a result, ex-offenders are expected to function in a world heavily reliant on modern technologies that they have potentially never seen or experienced before. Finding employment upon release can be key to reintegrating into society and preventing reoffending, yet many prison leavers lack some of the most basic digital skills required for finding and maintaining work as a result of their imprisonment.

Despite these issues, prisoners are often forgotten about in discussions surrounding the topic of digital inclusion. Hence, this research brief considers the rehabilitative potential of digital tools in increasing prisoners’ employability whilst highlighting the outdated prison system in England and Wales.

Digital Technologies as Rehabilitative Tools

With the treatment of prisoners being a controversial topic within public and political debate, changes within the prison system are met with caution (Hadlington and Knight, 2022). Prisoner access to digital technologies and the internet are often feared as being security threats, or deemed as undeserved luxuries (Reisdorf and Jewkes, 2016; Shilson-Thomas, 2020). This resistance to the advancement of prisons is troubling, as the punitive aspect of prisons is met by the removal of an offender’s liberty, which should be balanced by rehabilitative approaches to imprisonment (The Centre for Social Justice, 2021). Yet, denying the potential of digital technologies in improving prisoners’ prospects of reintegration upon release has created “a direct trade-off with rehabilitation” (Shilson-Thomas, 2020). Furthermore, the government recognises that “we cannot properly protect the public by focusing on punishment alone; we must also address the underlying causes of crime” (Department for Work and Pensions, 2005, p. 4).

Despite reservations over the costs of installing digital technologies into the prison estate, reoffending in England and Wales is estimated to cost £18 billion a year (Ministry of Justice, 2019). Employment is widely recognised as being a key factor in preventing reoffending through providing transformative life changes like; income, independence, routine, purpose, and social contact (Novus, 2023). However, employment rates of ex-offenders are extremely low, as the Prison Reform Trust (2022) reports that only one in six people are in employment six weeks after their release, rising to approximately one in five after six months. Along with the stigma associated with having a criminal record, the prison population has many individuals with low educational attainment and qualifications. Furthermore, 42% of adult prisoners have been permanently excluded from school, nearly one third have self-identified learning difficulties, and nearly a quarter have been in care (Ministry of Justice, 2016).

Being digitally excluded creates further barriers for ex-offenders finding employment, especially as the technology sector is growing significantly (Waterfield, 2022). Not only are digital skills required in the majority of workplaces in the modern world, but they are also crucial to steps within the application process such as creating a CV, job-searching, and corresponding with employers (The Centre for Social Justice, 2021). In addition, accessing housing and healthcare – which is important for maintaining employment – is now increasingly digitised (NHS Digital, 2022). Yet, for many prison leavers the devices they will need to operate in order to find and maintain employment will be totally unfamiliar (McDougall et al., 2017). Even for those serving shorter sentences, a continued period of disassociation with the internet is shown to have a negative impact on digital skills (Reisdorf and Jewkes, 2016). With this said, prison sentences are getting longer, with Black and Asian prisoners serving longer sentences than other groups (Prison Reform Trust, 2022). Among the aging prison population Reisdorf et al (2012) found there were anxieties over the use of technologies and confusion over terminology, such as referring to “apps” as “abs” or “amps”.

Current Digital Provisions in Prisons in England and Wales

The anxieties experienced by prisoners when discussing technologies are rooted in the fact that prisons “are digitally barren places” (Shilson-Thomas, 2020). With a quarter of our prisons being Victorian, they were not designed with digital capabilities in mind (Ministry of Justice, 2021). Whilst there have been some digital advancements to the prison estate in England and Wales, they are small-scale and inconsistent (Van de Steene and Knight, 2017). Self-serve kiosks are one of the only forms of technology in the prison estate that resemble modern day digital services. They use ‘smart’ touchscreens, with PIN and biometric logins, to allow prisoners to carry out tasks such as; booking visits and appointments, ordering items, accessing emails and choosing meals (Jewkes and Reisdorf, 2016). These allow prisoners to build digital skills and independence that would be useful in the workplace.

Most of the technology-based changes have been focussed around improving access to, and quality of, prison education and skills training. The Virtual Campus, which can be used to access digital educational resources, is available throughout the prison estate in England and Wales (Prisoner Learning Alliance, 2020). This being said, like many of the available resources in prisons, it is reliant on there being enough prison staff to escort and supervise prisoners to and within the communal areas where computers can be accessed (Prisoner Learning Alliance, 2020). The few computers that are available within prison usually provide the basic Microsoft package which prisoners can familiarise themselves with, although much of the software is outdated (Jewkes and Reisdorf, 2016). Code400, a UK charity, has provided digital skills training in 3 prisons and supports their graduates throughout their transition back into the community (Waterfield, 2022). Localised efforts have also been made to modernise the work-based environments in prisons. For example, prisoners in HMP Wealstun have been introduced to new digital software and hardware for stock control (100% Digital Leeds, 2022).

The company Coracle has tried to ease the lack of digital e-learning by providing nearly 1,000 laptops to 50 UK prisons – allowing prisoners to access a range of educational courses and build CV’s (FE News, 2023). This sort of in-cell technology could be transformative for promoting digital inclusion in the prison estate, allowing prisons to move away from the traditional, constrained teaching to the hybrid teaching that most schools and universities have adopted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic (Centre for Social Justice, 2021). The Prisoner Learning Alliance (2020) also highlights that online learning creates new opportunities for those who do not feel comfortable in traditional, in-person classroom settings. A project in HMP Chelmsford also demonstrated how this could be extremely beneficial to non-English speaking prisoners, where they could study online in their native language (Smith, 2012). In-cell technology would also allow for higher education opportunities, such as access to the Open University (Jewkes and Reisdorf, 2016).

This is not to say that in-person learning should be replaced, but that in-cell technology should be used to ease some of the constraints prison education is currently facing, such as small classrooms, poor quality of staff and outdated, limited learning resources – as reflected in Coates’ review of education in prison for the Ministry of Justice (2016). It would allow prisoners to use their in-cell time more productively, supplying them with both qualifications and digital skills that would improve employment prospects (Shilson-Thomas, 2020).

Future Prospects for Digital Inclusion

The clear potential that digital technologies have in improving prisoner’s chances of finding employment upon release has been recognised by the Ministry of Justice, and plans to implement digital technology were announced in their 2021 Prison Strategy White Paper. As only 4 adult prisons in England and Wales have in-cell technology, they state that by Summer 2022 11 prisons be installed with this technology and that in the following years 4 new prisons will be designed to incorporate in-cell devices (Ministry of Justice, 2021). However, to date, there have been few updates on the proposed installations. They have also claimed that they will create new digital content, as well as building “stronger links with employers, particularly those with skills shortages” (Ministry of Justice, 2021, p. 38). In response to the new prison strategy, the Prison Reform Trust (2021) highlighted that whilst they welcomed digital investment in prisons in order to keep prisoners up to date with the workings of the outside world, there was no timetable for the promised changes.

When considering the pace at which technology is evolving against the delivery speed of government plans, it is clear that much more could be done to fulfil the rehabilitative responsibilities of prisons in England and Wales. Despite the recognition that has been given by the Ministry of Justice to the importance of ICT’s in improving drastically low employment rates for prison leavers, there is a lack of urgency to create positive change. As a result, prison leavers continue to be released into unfamiliar digital environments with little support and further barriers to gaining employment, thus potentially increasing their likelihood to reoffend.

References

Department for Work and Pensions. (2005). Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-re-offending-through-skills-and-employment

100% Digital Leeds. Reducing reoffending through digital inclusion. Available at: https://digitalinclusionleeds.com/reducing-reoffending-through-digital-inclusion

FE News. (2023). Closing the digital skills gap is vital for reducing crime in 2023, says prison tech entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.fenews.co.uk/skills/closing-the-digital-skills-gap-is-vital-for-reducing-crime-in-2023-says-prison-tech-entrepreneur/

Hadlington, L., and Knight, V. (2022). Public Acceptability of Prisoners’ Access and Use of Digital Technologies in the UK. The Prison Journal, 102(2): 237-255.

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