Locked In and Locked Out: How COVID-19 Is Making the Case for Digital Inclusion of Incarcerated Populations

Abstract

Digital inequalities have been exacerbated for many marginalized populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is no different for one of the most marginalized populations in the United States, incarcerated people. Due to the pandemic, in-person visitations as well as educational and vocational programming were, and in many cases remain, suspended across numerous correctional facilities, leaving incarcerated people even more socially isolated than before the pandemic. Although an increasing number of facilities provide prison tablets for entertainment and communication purposes, high prices for electronic messages, video visitations, books, and entertainment content leave incarcerated people and their families unable to pay for these services. As best practice examples from California, Maine, New York City, and Pennsylvania demonstrate, connecting prisons to the internet and allowing incarcerated people secure access to the internet is possible, and long overdue. The pandemic has highlighted these issues and provides an opportunity to overhaul outdated ideas about prison communication.