Leveraging tablets to improve therapeutic outcomes for adults in custody

Over 1.2 million individuals are incarcerated in the United States. According to the Bureau of
Justice Statistics (BJS), nearly half of these individuals have a history of mental health
challenges, and more than half have a substance use disorder. Despite the high need for
treatment services in prisons and jails, over 60% do not receive treatment. Additionally, there
are often challenges with providing appropriate risk-need-responsive services to reduce
individuals’ risk of recidivism after release.

Providing therapeutic programming and services in prison can help adults in custody experience greater well-being during incarceration and increase the likelihood of success upon release. However, staffing shortages, long programming waitlists and safety/security concerns for higher-risk inmates can make implementation of programs and services challenging.

While many jails and state departments of corrections are implementing tablets to provide entertainment and enhance access to communication, there are additional opportunities to leverage tablet-based technology to foster rehabilitation and improve outcomes for adults in custody.

The following considerations can help agencies get started:

1. General education: Tablet-based education can help augment existing educational services in your institution. Augment GED, college and other education courses with tablet-based educational courses. Enhance your onsite library with additional legal texts and ebooks, and provide educational primers for vocational training to increase job readiness within your institution.
2. Augmentation of therapeutic interventions: Tablet-based therapeutic content should not replace treatment from skilled staff, but can scale the ability of staff to deliver individualized content based on risk-need and psychosocial assessments. This might include cognitive-behavioral interventions, reentry preparation and other content areas directly related to a person’s criminogenic risks and needs.
3. Psychoeducation: Unlike therapeutic programs, psychoeducation focuses on teaching content related to target issues. This can equip individuals with knowledge that will improve their ability and motivation to join additional programs or seek appropriate treatment. Psychoeducational content might include drug education, information about mental health conditions, trauma education and more.
4. Well-being interventions: Consider providing content on tablets that can enhance participants’ overall well-being, regardless of mental health status. Guided mindfulness and relaxation practices, stress management techniques and guided physical activities that can be completed in-cell.

While these resources can be helpful for all inmates, they may be particularly beneficial for individuals on programming waitlists or in restrictive housing settings. Additionally, they can provide prosocial, individualized resources to everyone within the institution — regardless of programming access or risk level. 

The Atlas digital intervention platform is a tablet-friendly resource that can be accessed in prison and jail settings. Atlas delivers risk-need-responsive interventions and provides prosocial unstructured time for adults in custody.