Tablets Behind Bars: Evidence from a Staggered Adoption Difference-in-Differences Study of Prison Misconduct

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.