Digital prison rehabilitation and successful re-entry into a digital society: A systematic literature review on the new reality on prison rehabilitation

Abstract

Digital transformation as a universal phenomenon has created a new reality in prison rehabilitation. Digitization promotes incarcerated people’s social skills, self-esteem, rehabilitation, and re-integration into society. Yet, many offenders are digitally incapacitated because they have never utilised digital technology or because they were denied access to any while incarcerated. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap. In this study, we systematically review the extant literature on prison rehabilitation to explain how the inclusion of digital rehabilitation of offenders makes re-entry successful and guarantees enhanced post-prison life in a digitalised society. To the best of our knowledge, this paper—which relies on the Good Lives Model and the Critical Theory Approach—is one of the first systematic literature reviews on digital prison rehabilitation. The Good Lives Model and the Critical Theory Approach are used in combination to investigate the three realms of digital prison rehabilitation: successful re-entry, post-prison life, and the digital society. We found that most of the prison rehabilitation practices and policies are still offline and do not cater for the digital realms. We conclude that the use of digital rehabilitation could facilitate a smooth transition back into society and ensure an improved post-prison quality of life in a technologically advanced society. By combining current digital technologies with augmented and virtual reality researchers in digital prison rehabilitation can create models that foster a new reality of prison rehabilitation.