Prisons in England and Wales are swapping analog systems for smarter technology, a shift driven by overcrowding and budget cuts. They're framing at modernisation but it is essentially a massive experiment in efficiency versus actual human rights.

The key tech that they have implemented are in-cell laptops a.k.a. the launchpad which are secure laptops for education booking visits and mental health support by calling Samaritans for example but the plan is to have this statewide by May 2025 which has passed

There are also smart prisons such as HMP five Wells which opened in 2022 where everything is digital first, also since the pandemic there are more video calls for courts. other technology in these prisons are body scanners from detection and data driven risk assessments kind of similar to an airport

However all these technical advances are failing as it's sort of a lottery with the postcode as if your prison is in an old or broke location you'll get nothing in older prisons. Those on demand or people who have bad security records often get blocked from using the technology and there's also a legal risk as a creates a massive gap in rehabilitation.

The education as well has been described as a joke as hardware issues happen all the time laptops are often off-line bricks and places like HMP Full Sutton, prisoners often get 5 to 7 days of useful laptop time per month because devices have to manually be charged and emptied by all the staff.

There are also issues of virtual justice being fast justice so let's say you have an online trial. Remote hearings are efficient but terrible for defendants. It's harder to talk to your lawyer privately or actually feel present in your own trial and the risks of article 6 (Human Rights Law: Article 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (incorporating the ECHR) guarantees the right to a fair and public trial. This includes the right to a hearing within a reasonable time by an independent tribunal, the presumption of innocence, and access to legal representation.) being broken as efficiency is being prioritised over the right to a fair trial.

There's also an algorithm bias as well a.k.a. the blackbox where systems use algorithms to decide your security risk and parole chances, essentially your fate is decided by a computer as nobody knows how these scores are calculated and they are impossible to challenge legally it's not driven punishment with no accountability

The truth is that prisons are supposed to be reform not for punishment denying digital literacy in 2026 is just setting people up to fail when they get technology has promised but right now it's just a way to manage more people if your staff often not the expense of actual justice