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Prisons: digital uses strictly limited

Published on 24 January 2018
Update on 26 September 2022
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Summary

The means of communication for people deprived of their liberty are an essential condition for their reintegration: to look for work or housing, to follow training courses, to keep in touch with their families. Detainees will soon have a telephone in their cells.

Legal access to the Internet is nowadays more than restricted in all places of deprivation of liberty.

A telephone in each cell

The Ministry of Justice has just launched a call for tenders to gradually equip more than 50,000 cells with fixed lines. Only numbers authorized by the administration will be able to be called. For the Ministry of Justice, the aim is both to encourage the maintenance of family ties, an essential factor in reintegration, and to defuse one of the main sources of incidents in prison, cell phone trafficking. In the first half of 2017, 19,339 cell phones and accessories had thus been discovered in French prisons, which as of July 1 included some 70,000 people, either convicted or awaiting trial.

Strictly regulated digital uses

The use of computers in cells is regulated by a circular from the Prison Administration dating from 2009. It distinguishes four levels of use: by prisoners in cells, in activity rooms, in supervised activity rooms and in courtrooms.

The use of computers in cells is subject to the authorization of the head of the establishment. Inmates have the right to "canteen" computers that comply with the specifications defined in the circular: the computers must be new, not have WiFi, Bluetooth, or DVD burners. They are also allowed to acquire printers without scanners and game consoles connected by cable. A selection of software is also allowed, in particular the Microsoft office suite or Open Office.

Digital training to prepare for reintegration

With more than 12% of the incarcerated population sentenced to ten years or more, the digital divide is a real risk.

Most places of detention are now equipped with computer rooms accessible during workshops supervised by associations or training tools.

An association, the Club Informatique Pénitentiaire (CLIP), has taken on the mission of training prisoners in digital uses: office automation and the Internet. CLIP is the prison administration's main partner for computer courses and is active in some fifty French prisons. To teach the basics of Internet navigation, the association has designed an "Internet simulator", Clipinet. Clipinet has no communication with the outside world but hosts locally a hundred or so sites that allow experimentation with the interactive procedures commonly used on the Internet. The software works in a local network structure, one of the computers in the computer room being used as a server.

Distance learning for incarcerated students

Access to education is a fundamental right for incarcerated populations. More than 700 incarcerated students are enrolled in higher education, according to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Approximately one third of these students are taking distance learning courses in order to obtain the Diploma of Access to University Studies (D.A.E.U.), which is the equivalent of the baccalaureate.

As two researchers note, " the digital administrative and pedagogical devices made available in this context make access more difficult for people without an Internet connection. People in prisons are particularly affected by this lack of connection in their places of learning".

Universities with distance learning services must adapt their administrative and pedagogical methods to offer this service to students who are partially or totally prohibited from accessing digital resources: complete courses that are scripted or enriched by animations, specific tutoring by a teacher or even by a graduate student, online assignments.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, 38 institutions offered more than 500 courses in 2016.

Références :

Sources

Prisons: digital uses strictly limited

The means of communication for people deprived of their liberty are an essential condition for their reintegration: to look for work or housing, to follow training courses, to keep in touch with their families. Detainees will soon have a telephone in their cells.

Legal access to the Internet is nowadays more than restricted in all places of deprivation of liberty.

A telephone in each cell

The Ministry of Justice has just launched a call for tenders to gradually equip more than 50,000 cells with fixed lines. Only numbers authorized by the administration will be able to be called. For the Ministry of Justice, the aim is both to encourage the maintenance of family ties, an essential factor in reintegration, and to defuse one of the main sources of incidents in prison, cell phone trafficking. In the first half of 2017, 19,339 cell phones and accessories had thus been discovered in French prisons, which as of July 1 included some 70,000 people, either convicted or awaiting trial.

Strictly regulated digital uses

The use of computers in cells is regulated by a circular from the Prison Administration dating from 2009. It distinguishes four levels of use: by prisoners in cells, in activity rooms, in supervised activity rooms and in courtrooms.

The use of computers in cells is subject to the authorization of the head of the establishment. Inmates have the right to "canteen" computers that comply with the specifications defined in the circular: the computers must be new, not have WiFi, Bluetooth, or DVD burners. They are also allowed to acquire printers without scanners and game consoles connected by cable. A selection of software is also allowed, in particular the Microsoft office suite or Open Office.

Digital training to prepare for reintegration

With more than 12% of the incarcerated population sentenced to ten years or more, the digital divide is a real risk.

Most places of detention are now equipped with computer rooms accessible during workshops supervised by associations or training tools.

An association, the Club Informatique Pénitentiaire (CLIP), has taken on the mission of training prisoners in digital uses: office automation and the Internet. CLIP is the prison administration's main partner for computer courses and is active in some fifty French prisons. To teach the basics of Internet navigation, the association has designed an "Internet simulator", Clipinet. Clipinet has no communication with the outside world but hosts locally a hundred or so sites that allow experimentation with the interactive procedures commonly used on the Internet. The software works in a local network structure, one of the computers in the computer room being used as a server.

Distance learning for incarcerated students

Access to education is a fundamental right for incarcerated populations. More than 700 incarcerated students are enrolled in higher education, according to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Approximately one third of these students are taking distance learning courses in order to obtain the Diploma of Access to University Studies (D.A.E.U.), which is the equivalent of the baccalaureate.

As two researchers note, " the digital administrative and pedagogical devices made available in this context make access more difficult for people without an Internet connection. People in prisons are particularly affected by this lack of connection in their places of learning".

Universities with distance learning services must adapt their administrative and pedagogical methods to offer this service to students who are partially or totally prohibited from accessing digital resources: complete courses that are scripted or enriched by animations, specific tutoring by a teacher or even by a graduate student, online assignments.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, 38 institutions offered more than 500 courses in 2016.

Références :

Sources

Labo Société Numérique

Labo République Française Agence nationale de cohésion des territoires
Prisons: digital uses strictly limited