Practice note Digital transformation for prisons: Developing a needs-based strategy Steven Van De Steene Smart Corrections, Belgium Victoria Knight De Montfort University, UK Abstract A digital revolution is upon our penal system – the inevitability of digital transformation is set to shape the way justice is done and experienced. This article identifies some important considerations for digital transformation in prison settings. There are some small yet very promising initiatives in many jurisdictions, and in these early stages of introducing digital technologies for prisoners and staff to use there are still some fundamental barriers. Therefore getting it right within the secure landscape brings further challenges for services. This article argues for prison organizations to develop their digital provision that centres the end user at the heart of their transformation. Keywords digital technology, needs-based, normalization, prisons ICT brings many different types of people to the same ‘place’; electronic media have fostered a blurring of many formerly distinct social roles. Electronic media affect us, then, not primarily through their content but by changing the situational geography of social life. (Meyrowitz, 1986) Corresponding Authors: Steven Van De Steene, Smart Corrections, Belgium; Coordinator Technology Solutions Group, International Prisons and Corrections Association (ICPA), Canada. Email: steven@smartcorrections.com Victoria Knight, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1, 9BH, UK. Email: VKnight@dmu.ac.uk Probation Journal 1–13 ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0264550517723722 journals.sagepub.com/home/prb The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice