Prisoners should have access to digital technology in jail, says Yori Kamphuis, cybersecurity specialist and Futurist of the Year 2013. “Otherwise it’s as if you’re putting a Neanderthal into our current society with no idea of how it works.”
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Having studied Exponential Technology in Silicon Valley, Kamphuis was invited to join an expert meeting on the Dutch prison system, tasked with making recommendations for improvements. He focused on ideas to reduce the number of repeat offenders.
He observed that prisoners were routinely denied access to computers or other digital technology. On their release after serving a long sentence, they feel completely disconnected from society. Unable to cope with everyday technology in the workplace, they drift back into a life of crime. “I think we should let prisoners have access to their digital goods,” Kamphuis argues.
As a student Yori Kamphuis cofounded cybersecurity company Coblue, voted one of the fifty most innovative university start-ups worldwide in 2012.