Using 3D Worlds in Prison: Driving, Learning and Escape

Abstract

Affordable hardware and increased processing power have resulted in a surge in the number and adoption of virtual reality applications and immersive virtual environments. These applications are able to immerse the user in an environment other than that of their immediate geographical location. The one population that is unable to move even within their own geographical location are prisoners. Prisoners are secluded away from the general population, unable to travel, attend education beyond the prison walls or interact with a wide variety of people. At least to a certain extent, these constraints are able to be overcome with the use of virtual reality and immersive virtual environments.This paper briefly examines the constraints experienced by prisoners and the technical limitations of the prison environment. It explores the very few cases where these technologies are already used within the prison setting. A number of potential uses for virtual reality within prisons are proposed, including the justification for these approaches and a description of how these technologies are being used outside of the prison setting.

Therapeutic virtual reality in prison: Participatory design with incarcerated women

“…The learning principles of VR stress training, “latent inhibition” and “stress resilience,” assume that patients are exposed to and can learn from stressful stimuli within a safe and inconsequential environment (Rizzo et al, 2012a). In the United States, prisons are not designed to provide such environments, with their priority on security and control (Farley, 2018). Accordingly, we sought to design VR media that might produce a safe and inconsequential environment for incarcerated women to practice reentry stresses while still incarcerated.…”

“…Several startups and state Departments of Correction (DOCs), which govern regional prison systems, have begun experimenting with virtual reality (VR) as a cost-effective tool to prepare inmates for the psychological difficulties of reentry (Lewis, 2018), despite historically conservative adoption of digital technologies in prisons and low security risk tolerance (Farley, 2018). “What we’re doing right now isn’t working,” a high-ranking DOC officer explained about existing reentry programs (Staff 1, personal communication, 30 January 2019).…”

Fast Cars and Fast Learning: Using Virtual Reality to Learn Literacy and Numeracy in Prison

“…With good reason, correctional jurisdictions have traditionally been conservative when considering implementing educational technology initiatives within the prison environment (Farley & Doyle, 2014). For the most part, prisons are primarily designed and built with custodial security as the overriding priority (Farley, 2018). Even so, a number of jurisdictions around the world are beginning to implement innovative technology programs for education.…”

“…Some jurisdictions are going even further and are employing virtual reality initiatives for rehabilitation, education, and reintegration (Farley, 2018). Even so, there are only isolated pockets of VR innovation happening around the world, and there are no widescale deployments of VR in prisons for any purpose, educational, or otherwise (Farley, 2018).…”

“…Some jurisdictions are going even further and are employing virtual reality initiatives for rehabilitation, education, and reintegration (Farley, 2018). Even so, there are only isolated pockets of VR innovation happening around the world, and there are no widescale deployments of VR in prisons for any purpose, educational, or otherwise (Farley, 2018). There are a number of reasons for this: 1) correctional jurisdictions are necessarily risk-averse, and VR hardware is thought to introduce an unacceptable degree of risk; 2) many VR applications require internet connectivity, and this is forbidden in most correctional jurisdictions; 3) VR hardware and applications are sophisticated and expensive and beyond the means of many educational providers and correctional jurisdictions, and 4) VR applications are labor intensive to run and supervise making them prohibitively expensive for most education providers delivering into prisons and for the correctional jurisdictions themselves.…”