Recommended Citation

Yael Eiger, Taylor Hansen, Teanna Barrett, Jevan Hutson, Bryce Clayton Newell & Franziska Roesner, Technology Before, During, and After Incarceration: Current Product Landscape, Sociotechnical Concerns, and Legal Considerations in the U.S. Context, The 2026 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’26) (2026)

Authors

• Yael Eiger
• Taylor Hansen
• Teanna Barrett
• Jevan Hutson, University of Washington School of LawFollow
• Bryce Clayton Newell
• Franziska Roesner

Technology Before, During, and After Incarceration: Current Product Landscape, Sociotechnical Concerns, and Legal Considerations in the U.S. Context

Publication Title

The 2026 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’26)

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Emerging technology, including AI, is proliferating throughout the U.S. carceral system. These technologies are marketed to prisons and police departments and then procured using taxpayer money. Previous investigative reporting has exposed troubling kickback schemes, unconstitutional data collection practices, and biased algorithmic outcomes in a handful of prominent technologies (e.g., Flock, Palantir, Clearview AI, COMPAS). In this work, we consider the broader ecosystem of carceral technologies: we catalog 122 products from 53 companies selling technology to carceral institutions. In a collaboration among computer science, law, and surveillance studies scholars, we surface sociotechnical, ethical, and legal concerns related to the use and deployment of these technologies, including concerns related to privacy, accuracy, fairness, censorship, due process, and more. We present case studies of technology advertised for deployment in three stages of the carceral cycle: before, during, and after incarceration. We call for increased transparency and auditing, more research on the impact of these technologies, and more research on the emerging legal and regulatory challenges.