We’ve been talking to Anton Shelupanov of the Innovation, Justice and Youth Programme at the Young Foundation about the social need surrounding the UK’s prison system.
He’s been helping us think about how technology could be used to support the families of prisoners coping with the experience of being apart from a loved one.
Take a look at the social need and what inspired us to tackle this issue. How could you help? What do you think would work? Add your suggestions for web tools which could tackle this problem below, or alternatively, you can always email us your idea if you want more space to explain.
The social need
The offender is not the only individual who has to learn how to cope with the experience of prison. Having a loved one incarcerated is also a dislocating and traumatic experience for their friends and family – all too often the system doesn’t make this any easier.
Prisoners often serve long jail terms in institutions many miles away from where their homes are. Visiting family members and friends who are spending time in jail can be very difficult for those on the outside, especially for those who have young children to look after or who have other financial or social problems.
Yet maintaining social ties with the outside world is really important, not only for the well-being of friends and family, but for the offender as well. Prisoners who have greater social contact with non-offenders whilst serving time in jail find the transition into life after prison easier and are less likely to re-offend, which is an important aspect of building a safer society.
To build a website or tool that creates greater access to prison visits and improves the experience of visiting someone in jail. It should provide better information about how the system works and what life is like for offenders inside. This could include:
- A tool to help visitors locate and travel to and from prisons. This might include public transport information together with prison visiting times and a facility for planning journeys.
- Information on child care support.
- Could there be support specifically for those visiting prisoners who aren’t UK nationals?
- Perhaps there could be something to help children who will be visiting parents in jail?
- It should be accessible to people to don’t necessarily have frequent online access – could a mobile or text messaging service be incorporated?
What’s new about it?
The prison system is traditionally a closed and complex one for outsiders to understand. Opening up how it all works could hold considerable social benefit.
And this is not only of use to visitors – prison visits are also a challenge for prison staff. They are difficult to organise and can pose security risks. Some kind of web-based social tool which could facilitate information sharing between prisons and families would also help in preparing visitors for what to expect and make the whole process easier and less stressful for both parties.
Some further issues to consider
There are a couple of points to consider about the use of social media in relation to the prison system.
- Access to technology within jails is very limited. Where there is internet access, it is extremely limited; typically there is no access at all. This initiative would be focused on visitors, community groups and potentially staff connecting with one another, rather than directly with offenders.
- Anonymity for users of the tool is very important. Unlike most other social media tools, this would have to be a semi-closed system where people could feel comfortable contributing data in the knowledge that it was completely anonymised. Parts of the site might even have to be closed to the public.
- There are also a number of security considerations surrounding the release of certain pieces of information about prisons, for example detailed descriptions of their floor plans or photographs of staff / prisoners taken without their consent. This puts restrictions on the type of user-generated content available on the site.
Any questions you have about what might be possible for this challenge should be added below – we’ll aim to provide the answers.