Living in Prison, Studying on Campus: Digital Challenges for Students in a UK Open Prison

Abstract

This article examines the information behaviour of a group of students housed in an “open” prison in southern England and enabled to attend university during weekdays. This group faces unique challenges, unexplored in existing studies on incarcerated distance learners, as they experience intermittent online access alongside specific restrictions. The study aims to explore their information behaviours, including how digital literacies develop over time, and evaluate the support provided by university staff to generate recommendations for similar prison–university partnerships. Data from weekly reflective progress logs and follow‐up interviews with incarcerated students (𝑛 = 8) are supplemented with interviews with relevant university staff (𝑛 = 5). Theories of digital exclusion, transitional information behaviour, and digital identities inform the analysis. Preliminary findings suggest challenges emerge from the contrast between the restrictive prison information landscape and the digitally intensive university environment, combined with time pressure related to intermittent digital access. Students must continually adapt to new technologies while already immersed in a transition. Prohibitions on smartphones and online networking can lead to social stigma and hinder full participation in the student community. Nonetheless, participants showed strong determination to succeed, which could be supported through targeted support from institutional stakeholders.