New prison legislation in Finland:Prisoners have an opportunity to use the internet

2.10.2015 EPEA/Antwerp

Senior Specialist Kati Sunimento

Criminal Sanctions Agency / Central Administration

Contents of the presentation

Briefly on prison education in Finland

New Imprisonment Act amendments regarding the prisoners' possibility to use the internet and e-mail

Reasons for and background of the new Act

Current situation and near future plans

Organisation of prison education

Education is arranged by educational institutions operating outside the prison

The costs of the education are covered by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the facilities and materials are provided by the prisons

However, prison education does not have separate earmarked funding, i.e. the educational institutions receive the same compensation for students in prisons than for civilian students => the challenge is to get large enough study groups in prisons

Number of studying prisoners (total 1 855) by the type of education in 2014 Does not include those studying outside the prison on a study permit (141 prisoners) and those studying during their free time

Type of education % n

Basic education 2 33

General upper secondary education

14 240

Prevocational education 34 585

Vocational education 27 465

Higher education 1 21

Other education (ICT, music, languages…)

22 370

Total 100 1 714=23.5%

Law amendments regarding electronic communication The amendments of the Imprisonment Act entered into

force on 1 May 2015

The Imprisonment Act was added many specifications regarding, e.g. visits, safety, the prisoners' right to appeal, and electronic communication

Unfortunately, the amendments related to electronic communication do not yet really show in the everyday life of the closed prisons because the changes are so big and require careful planning (the prisoners' needs, safety, training of the staff, adjustment of attitudes)

Use of the internet

§ A prisoner may be granted a permission to use the internet in order to attend to livelihood, work, education, legal, social or housing issues or for another corresponding important reason For instance e-learning and contact with authorities

§ In a closed prison, the granting of the permission requires that the prisoner's access to other than allowed websites is properly blocked

§ A permission to use the internet may be granted if the use does not endanger prison order or security or the safety of the prisoner or another person

Use of e-mail§ A prisoner may be granted a permission to send and receive e-

mails in order to maintain contacts, attend to livelihood, work, education, legal, social or housing issues, or for another corresponding important reason

Sent and received e-mails have to go via a server controlled by the prison

Outgoing e-mails are sent forward only after the prison has assessed whether there are grounds for inspection

§ A permission may be granted if the use does not endanger prison order or security or the safety of the prisoner or another person and if the sender and the receiver of the message can be adequately verified

Permission to use the internet and its supervision 1/3

§ The prisoner has to give an account of the important reason for the use of the internet

§ The permission may be granted for one or more important reasons and for a specific period or until further notice

§ It has to be pointed out in the permission that the use of the internet will be supervised

§ If the preconditions for granting a permission to use the internet are no longer fulfilled after the decision has been made or if the prisoner breaches the terms of the permission, the permission may be cancelled.

§ Breaching the terms of the permission is a disciplinary infraction For instance incorrect information on the receiver or the reason for sending

e-mail

Permission to use the internet and its supervision 2/3

§ A permission cannot be granted to the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

§ In open prisons, it is possible to give the prisoner's own computer to his or her possession, for instance, for studying

§ A prisoner placed in a high-security ward cannot be granted a permission to use e-mail

§ A remand prisoner, who has been imposed a restriction of contacts in accordance with the Coercive Measures Act, cannot be granted a permission to use electronic communication

Permission to use the internet and its supervision 3/3§ The decision on a permission to use email and the internet and

its cancellation as well as giving a computer to the possession of a prisoner is made by the prison director or an official in charge of security or operations

§ The same provisions apply to reading an e-mail message received or sent by a prisoner as to reading a traditional letter Reading a message is allowed only in special cases

§ Sending e-mails and using the internet can be supervised by technical means and so that an official of the Criminal Sanctions Agency is present We can supervise that the e-mail is sent to the correct address

and that the prisoner is using the websites in the internet in accordance with the permission

Contact via video connection

§ A prisoner may be granted a permission to be in contact with his or her close relatives and other close people by using a video connection or other applicable technical means of communication where the participants are in voice and visual contact with each other

§ In order to maintain contacts or for other important reason, a contact may be arranged also with another person important to the prisoner

The aim is to use the same system also in the communication with the teachers (student counselling and remedial lessons)

Reasons for and background of the new Act In modern society, the use of information and

communications technology is a civic skill comparable to reading and writing skills

Interaction with the authorities is mostly done electronically The problem is that the use of online services requires

identification by, e.g., online bank codes but not all prisoners can get those codes (poor credit history)

We want to guarantee all prisoners equal rights to electronic communication (taking into account the level of supervision), it cannot be prison-specific

The purpose of the law amendments is to clarify the provisions and increase the use of electronic communication

The aim is to simplify and modernise the work practices and promote cost-effectiveness

The study possibilities of the prisoners will be increased with the help of e-learning => more individual study paths

The Finnish matriculation examination will be in electronic form starting from the autumn 2016 => the prisoners have to be able to take part in the matriculation examination and prepare for it

Current situation in open prisons

Since 2012, all open prisons have had virtual desktop infrastructure provided by Oracle (VDI devices)

The prisoners use a so-called dumb terminal (screen, keyboard, mouse, smart card reader)

The prisoners log in to the system with the prison smart card (not personal)

Software and administration in an external server (Fujitsu)

The use of the internet is limited only by a so-called school filter (adult entertainment, violence, drugs)

In addition, some open prisons have devices with open internet access for teaching purposes and some have granted the prisoners permissions to use their own devices

Current situation in closed prisons

In closed prisons, the use of the internet has only been piloted in different projects

iPads have been tested in one closed prison Contacting a teacher via Adobe Connect

In 2014, a pilot was started in closed prisons, which uses the VDI devices but the prisoners can only access a closed Moodle learning environment

Moodle pilot in closed prisons

All material is in Moodle; the prisoners and the teachers can send messages to each other and the prisoners can hand in their assignments to the teachers

The teachers can access the system from their office computer outside the prison over a secure connection

Moodle pilot in closed prisons

The material used during this pilot consists mainly of modified Moodle Courses of Oulu Upper Secondary School for Adults

The internet links are replaced by other educational material (texts, illustrations)

The pilot gives an opportunity to practice the electronic matriculation examination

The pilot has shown that e-learning benefits especially those prisoners who cannot take part in group education (safety reasons, no suitable courses as group education)

Near future plans

The use of the VDI devices will end in 2017 because Oracle discontinues the hardware support

The production of the devices has already ended, thus we cannot order more

This means that the current VDI system cannot be expanded and we have to come up with a new solution

The electronic communication project started on 1 August 2015

The project will develop a totally new system in the near future

Thanks for your attention!