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Objectives <p>Evaluate Washington’s prison-issued tablets, which aim to expand services and enhance institutional safety.</p> Methods <p>Staggered adoption difference-in-differences with monthly administrative data from 12 prisons, January 2019 - March 2023. Outcomes include total infractions, serious infractions, drug incidents, and cellphone violations. The Callaway and Sant’Anna estimator addresses treatment-effect heterogeneity, with time-varying covariates and wild cluster bootstrap standard errors. Event-study models evaluate pre-treatment trends and post-adoption changes.</p> Results <p>Tablet deployment produced consistently negative but non-significant effects, with point estimates suggesting reductions in total infractions (− 19.5%), serious infractions (− 52.6%), drug incidents (− 32.3%), and cellphone violations (− 67.6%). Event-study analyses show similar pre-treatment trends and no immediate post-adoption disruption.</p> Conclusions <p>Tablets do not compromise institutional safety in the short term. Despite methodological limitations (short follow-up period and small sample), findings suggest possible benefits to enhancing outside communication and expanding access to services. Future research should examine longer-term effects and disentangle mechanisms of change.</p>

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Tablets behind bars: evidence from a staggered adoption difference-in-differences study of prison misconduct

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月1日

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  • Bryce E. Peterson,
  • KiDeuk Kim,
  • Rochisha Shukla,
  • Sarah Aukamp

摘要

Objectives

Evaluate Washington’s prison-issued tablets, which aim to expand services and enhance institutional safety.

Methods

Staggered adoption difference-in-differences with monthly administrative data from 12 prisons, January 2019 - March 2023. Outcomes include total infractions, serious infractions, drug incidents, and cellphone violations. The Callaway and Sant’Anna estimator addresses treatment-effect heterogeneity, with time-varying covariates and wild cluster bootstrap standard errors. Event-study models evaluate pre-treatment trends and post-adoption changes.

Results

Tablet deployment produced consistently negative but non-significant effects, with point estimates suggesting reductions in total infractions (− 19.5%), serious infractions (− 52.6%), drug incidents (− 32.3%), and cellphone violations (− 67.6%). Event-study analyses show similar pre-treatment trends and no immediate post-adoption disruption.

Conclusions

Tablets do not compromise institutional safety in the short term. Despite methodological limitations (short follow-up period and small sample), findings suggest possible benefits to enhancing outside communication and expanding access to services. Future research should examine longer-term effects and disentangle mechanisms of change.