With nearly half of adults reoffending within a year of release from prison, there must be room for innovation in our justice system. Core Systems in Belfast has been working with prisons for 15 years, using digital technology to tackle some of their underlying issues. The company recognises that there maybe 20 to 30 systems in the information workflow in a prison. Prisoners are entitled to much of that information but don’t have easy access to it so they have to go through a prison officer every time. With our overcrowded prisons facing cuts to their budgets, of which about 70% is staffing, there is a big need for efficiency.
Core Systems provides a secure digital system for offenders to use in prison, bringing together several disparate information services through one combined interface. Partly due to the prevalence of low literacy and learning difficulties in prison populations, the system is designed to be very simple to use. It is operated by touch and largely image-based. The system removes the need to visit a prison officer and go through the paper-based bureaucracy of issuing a “service request” just to do something simple like ordering a snack. Prison Officers are spending up to 50% of their time dealing with these requests and other menial admin tasks.
The system allows users to make important connections – with the likes of family and friends, support services, potential employers and peer mentors. They are also able to access services such as their current account balance, personal support information, and education features such as learning materials and education programmes. Also, by storing each user’s work, the system is able to demonstrate the learning progress that has been made by the offender.
The product is primarily accessed through tough, secure kiosks, that stand in shared areas of the prison and are each used by several people. But the system can be delivered through other devices so Core Systems has developed secure software for tablets. These personal devices can be used by individual people without having to leave their cells or wait their turn for the kiosk. The company is also working on delivering the product through the entertainment systems that are already in-place in prison cells. These innovations bring the system closer to the individual prisoner and offer a more personal, flexible system.
Core Systems goes beyond the prison walls to provide a range of services aimed at rehabilitation. For instance, by connecting the prisoner with his or her family, the system taps into one of the biggest known factors in keeping people out of prison. After release, the product continues to be useful by providing a continuum of personalised data and education services from inside prison and back into the world. Likewise, the system is continuous across multiple prisons if the offender is transferred.
Besides the obvious social benefit, there are powerful economic forces behind the need for greater rehabilitation and less reoffending. Prisons and probation are expensive to deliver. And with increasing privatisation of prisons, along with other factors such as the government’s recent initiative for Transforming Rehabilitation, there are growing financial incentives for any innovations that make the justice system more efficient and keep people out of jail.
Core Systems sees the future of rehabilitation as being a personal experience, tailored to the individual. The company is working around the world to demonstrate its place in this future. Partners in the US were first to adopt the system, but progress is being made in other places including some of the Nordic countries, which are seen to be leaders in social services and rehabilitation.
- See more at NISP CONNECT.
