PrisonCloud for inmates. Limits to digital normalization?
Digital media and technology are affecting our lives in profound ways. The ongoing digitalization has
even been called a new industrial revolution. For a long time, prisons have been considered as total
institutions. Social developments over time, however, opened them up to the outside. In this contribution
we report on PrisonCloud, a digital platform recently introduced in some new-built Belgian prisons.
We contextualize this development and compare with earlier, similar prison regime reforms, especially
those during the post-World War II period, when access to radio, television, telephone and computers
became progressively available for inmates. These outside developments entered into life behind bars
on the basis of a fragile balance between principles of normalization and less eligibility and were also
affected by security considerations. The question arises whether and how such debates play a role concerning the digitalization of prison regimes.