Paper „Social and Collaborative Robots in Prison“

The paper „Social and Collaborative Robots in Prison“ by Tamara Siegmann and Oliver Bendel was published in the ICSR 2024 proceedings in March 2025. From the abstract: „Social and collaborative robots are rarely found in prisons, a finding that applies worldwide with a few exceptions. Yet they could help with numerous tasks. How such robots can and should be used in prisons is explored in this article. It examines the situation in Switzerland and includes expert interviews with the Inter-cantonal Commissioner for Digitalization and several prison directors and their staff as well as inmates. It becomes clear that there are certainly areas in which social and collaborative robots would be useful and beneficial or even preferable to humans. However, there are also arguments and reservations against their use. The results can be transferred to other states under the rule of law with all due caution. It would be important to conduct further research in other countries and cultures.“ The book – the first of three volumes – can be downloaded via SpringerLink.

Fig.: Tamara Siegmann and Oliver Bendel at the ICSR 2024 in Odense, Denmark