Introduction #
This critical reflection examines previous studies about the ICTs use of returning citizens during their reentry into society and transition from former incarceration. The United States has incarcerated a great population of people since 1970s, with the imprisonment rate increasing throughout the 20th century and reaching 450-680 per 100,000 people by the start of the 21st century (Garland, 2001). The history of mass incarceration has created a spider web that is difficult for former prisoners to escape and hide from, and their past experiences in incarceration made it hard for the returning citizens to reintegrate into the society (Gurusami, 2019). The spider web entangled lots of people, and especially those from marginalized groups. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a select number of prisoners were released by some US jails as the internal environment of prisons could not promise social distancing (Seo et al., 2022). However, the outside world is increasingly digitalized, especially in the pandemic period when technology and online connectivity have become critical. For former incarcerated citizens, a new digital divide is emerging – one that affects their digital ability to reintegrate into society (Ogbonnaya-Ogburu et al., 2019; Reisdorf & DeCook, 2022; Reisdorf et al., 2022; Reisdorf & Rikard, 2018; Seo et al., 2022). In this critical review, I will summarize the digital obstacles for those new beginners as they embark on their new road and discuss the possible solutions of digital rehabilitation to this problem.
Digital Divide for New Beginners #
The term “digital divide” refers to the unequal distribution of access to the technologies (Rogers, 2001). However, merely having access to technology does not guarantee equitable use. Various other forms of digital divides have been studied, such as internet skills, range of use, and other forms of digital literacy (e.g., Hargittai, 2002; Blank & Groselj, 2014). Previous studies about digital divide have revealed that this issue is not solely a question of technology, but the result of socioeconomic status spilling over to the digital access and digital literacy. In this section, I will discuss the digital divide faced by returning citizens.
For the former incarcerated people, their digital divide experience started prior to the release. In prisons, access to computers is often insufficient for prisoners, and the tablets that offer limited internet use are provided by JPay, a company with a monopoly in the prison market that charges unreasonable prices for incarcerated individuals to use (Reisdorf et al., 2022). After the release, many former prisoners find that the technology has changed so drastically over the past decade that they struggle to understand even the most basic digital skills, let alone the functions of smartphones and digital knowledge (Reisdorf & DeCook, 2022; Reisdorf et al., 2022). Simultaneously, the lack of digital literacy poses new challenges to an important aspect of reentry into the society – job search. In recent years, using social media networks has become an obvious trend for job searching and making connections. However, even though the returning citizens are introduced to smart phones by their friends and families upon release, they still struggle to acquire key online job searching skills (Ogbonnaya-Ogburu et al., 2019). The financial barriers also play an important part in creating digital divide. Low and unstable income often means that they run out of mobile data quickly and rely heavily on public internet connections (Seo et al., 2022).
The pandemic has brought these issues to the forefront. On one hand, many formerly incarcerated individuals struggle to maintain a stable internet connection due to financial burdens, while public areas that provide free WiFi connections are often closed during the pandemic (Reisdorf & DeCook, 2022; Reisdorf et al., 2022; Seo et al., 2022). On the other hand, the pandemic made online job searching become an even obvious trend. Statistics said that employees working from home in all organizations tripled from 9 million people to 27.6 million people between 2019 and 2021 (Public Information Office, 2022). The limited knowledge of digital working skills definitely hinders the road to reentry.
Digital Rehabilitation for the New Beginners #
Rehabilitation refers to the process that helps an individual readapt him/herself to the society, particularly those who were formerly incarcerated (Reisdorf & Rikard, 2018). Reisdorf and Rikard (2018) developed the digital rehabilitation model from the six dimensions, including economic, social, personal, cultural, and health, to understand how the individuals reintegrated into society digitally after being released from prison. They revealed that the digital reentry process is not only a question of technology, but also a structural predicament for the former incarcerated people. Therefore, solutions to this plight should be composed of different forces, from online to offline.
Current digital training for former incarcerated people falls short in terms of time spent and training scope. The basic training in Microsoft and other fundamental documenting skills cannot satisfy the rapidly changing digital society, not even to say preparing individuals for tonline job searching to meet their basic financial needs (Ogbonnaya-Ogburu et al., 2019; Reisdorf & DeCook, 2022; Reisdorf et al., 2022; Seo et al., 2022). Besides the digital skills of acquiring jobs and making connections, we also involve having the skills to protect their legitimate rights, including privacy, in the concept of digital literacy (Seo et al., 2022). By all means, more digital training is called for the released citizens.
Furthermore, the digital rehabilitation should not only occur after release. The prisoning system should shift its strategy and attitude from punishment to rehabilitation, and provide more digital training to prepare the prisoners during incarceration, and free them from the entanglements of incarceration in their post-release time (Gurusami, 2019; Reisdorf & DeCook, 2022).
Conclusion #
The digitalization of society has brought the digital rehabilitation problem for former incarcerated people to foreground, however, we have to acknowledge that technology is intertwined with other aspects of our daily lives, and therefore, rehabilitation cannot be solely focused on technology. To facilitate a successful reentry for returning citizens, more strategies in socialization, health, economy, and culture must be developed to support every returning citizen from leaving the prison to entering their community, both online and offline (Reisdorf & Rikard, 2018). Acknowledging the digital divide faced by returning citizens, and considering the digital rehabilitation that can benefit them, are definitely the starting point. To ensure an effective rehabilitation for returning citizens, a socio-technological perspective is required to involve collaboration among academic scholars from different subjects and approaches, policymakers, non-profit organizations, and all aspects of society.
References #
Blank, G., & Groselj, D. (2014). Dimensions of Internet use: amount, variety, and types. Information, Communication & Society, 17(4), 417–435.
Garland, D. (2001). Introduction: The meaning of mass imprisonment. In D. Garland (Ed.), Mass imprisonment: Social causes and consequences (pp. 1–3). Sage Publications.
Gurusami, S. (2019). The Carceral Web we weave: Carceral citizens’ experiences of digital punishment and solidarity. Punishment & Society, 21(4), 435–453.
Hargittai, E. (2002). Second-level digital divide: Differences in people’s online skills. First Monday, 7(4). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/942
Ogbonnaya-Ogburu, I. F., Toyama, K., & Dillahunt, T. R. (2019). Towards an effective digital literacy intervention to assist returning citizens with job search. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI’ 19), Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Public Information Office. (2022). The number of people primarily working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021. (Press Release No. CB22-155). United States Census Bureau. [https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/people-working-from-home.html#:~:text=SEPT.,by%20the%20U.S.%20Census%20Bureau](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/people-working-from-home.html#:~:text=SEPT.,by the U.S. Census Bureau)
Reisdorf, B. C., & DeCook, J. R. (2022). Locked up and left out: Formerly incarcerated people in the context of digital inclusion. New Media & Society, 24(2), 478–495.
Reisdorf, B. C., DeCook, J., Foster, M., Cobbina, J., & LaCourse, A. (2022). Digital reentry: uses of and barriers to ICTs in the prisoner reentry process. Information, Communication & Society, 25(14), 2028–2045.
Reisdorf, B. C., & Rikard, R. V. (2018). Digital rehabilitation: A model of reentry into the digital age. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(9), 1273–1290.
Rogers, E. M. (2001). The Digital Divide. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 7(4), 96–111.
Seo, H., Britton, H., Ramaswamy, M., Altschwager, D., Blomberg, M., Aromona, S., … & Wickliffe, J. (2022). Returning to the digital world: Digital technology use and privacy management of women transitioning from incarceration. New Media & Society, 24(3), 641–666.
Last modified on 2023-05-10