Facewind
Achieving Compliance Engagement
a pilot program run by Catch22 to help people on probation. Our brief is to apply service design to help achieve ACE’s mission in real-time.
Useful Links:
What is probation?
A person on probation's journey starts with an offence and an arrest. After completing half of a sentence period in prison, the offender can begin their journey on probation. Probation is when an offender is released and subjected to a period of good behaviour under supervision. They abide by certain rules known as licences, and must report to their probation officer (also know as probation practitioner). If they break their licence, the probation officer can ask the police to return them to prison. This is called 'Recall'.
Negative status quo
Surprisingly we know very little about our prison population. Toward the end of last year (2021) the government agreed to creating a further 14,000 prison spaces across the 100+ UK prisons. Re-Offending remains a significant social concern, beyond the cost to taxpayers, it permeates fear & anxiety across neighbourhoods and communities.
Probation gives many people a chance, but recall rates have long been high. Re-Offending remains a significant social concern, beyond the cost to taxpayers, it permeates fear & anxiety across neighbourhoods and communities.
Government actions
Charity and Social Business Catch 22 has recently been awarded a grant from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to deliver an Innovative Pilot which we have called Achieving Compliance and Engagement (ACE). The aim of this pilot is to reduce the number of individuals returning to custody shortly after being released because of non-compliance with their licence conditions. ACE proposes a new role, namely Navigator Mentor, who will provide intensive, individually tailored support to prison leavers in attempt to encourage them to build and restore positive, pro-social relationships and networks within the community.
ACE is an experimental program that only started at the beginning of this year, which requires repeated trials and iterations, and our brief is working with the client (Catch22) and iterating this service in real time with design methodologies. This pilot will finish in December 2022 and the positive outcomes of which will make its way into policy.
Mission: WorKing with Catch22 and the ACE team
how do we review, optimize, and finally deliver ACE, to reduce recidivism?
Preliminary Research
To efficiently and comprehensively understand the landscape of the entire system, we framed our research into a sentence - “probation as People in a Place within a Process”.
Based on the '3P' framework, we asked ourselves: "What is the least we need to know about this system?"
Abbreviation:
PoP - People on Probation;
PP - Probation Practitioner;
NM - Navigator Mentor.
Desk research | PoPs & PPs
Our desk research included a lot of readings, especially on the regulations on the probation system, DOJ policies, and future strategies. We also researched the history of probation, examples of probation services in other countries, existing 'rehabilitation' services for PoPs, the daily work of probation officers, etc. To put it simply, we want to draw a detailed landscape centered on PoPs and PPs: where did they come from, how are they now, and where are they going.
The results of the analysis emphasize the importance of digital services, empathy of probation practitioners, the length of time PPs spend with P0Ps, the enabling environment, and the pre-release interventions.
Observation & Interview | NMs
Desk research can be abstract and unconvincing, so in order to gain a more realistic, detailed understanding of probation service and this pilot program, we visited ACE's offices in the Canning Town. In several different meetings, we rambled with eight NMs in this team, and our questions included: What do you believe is the purpose of your job? What is your daily story? Can you show us your top three skills you feel are most important in this job? What do you think is the biggest challenge in this job? Our main aim was to identify potential intervention points from the experience of real frontline workers.
We also visited HMP Thameside and spoke with probation officers, recall managers, educators and more who work there. What we were looking for is the actionable intervention points inside the prison, before the probation begins.
The results of the analysis once again emphasized the importance of time, resources, communication environment and empathy. The new insight is that a warm social network and a clear understanding of 'self' will greatly benefit the stable development of PoPs in the community.
Stage summary
1.Prison based activities activate the PoPs' mind, and stimulate a sense of purpose.
2.Warm family and friendship are always good for mental health.
3.Longer intervention brings deeper impact and more stable relationships.
4.An enabling physical environment can benefit the process of communication.
5.Probation requires professional staff with more diverse skills, such as empathy.
Even though we've found five seemingly sparkling intervention points that anyone would find plausible, what's after? They are still vague, so
We need to stay on the front lines longer and capture more details.
Ethnographic Research
Because the ultimate goal is to reduce recidivism, the protagonists of the story are always the PoPs. Through various channels, we have come into contact with three PoPs(or pre-PoPs) that fully meet the ultimate service goal of ACE, that is, people who have really started a positive life in the community, namely Carl, Raheel, and LJ.Flanders.
In addition to the conversation, we also used the ethnographic research method of observation, shadowing and diary reflection in getting along with the three of them. The core question was "What brought about positive changes for them? What made them in probation success?".
Useful links:
Carl's Youtube Channel;
Raheel | The gym fighting gang violence in east London;
From inmate to entrepreneur: LJ Flanders.
26/02/2022 - Carl
The first time we met Carl, I thought he was a young, confident, flexible man. I found out later in our conversation that he was humorous, friendly, chatty, polite, he wasn't nervous about his experience, he relaxed very quickly and became a group with us. I can't help but think, he is confident, warm, friendly, what is the source of these positive attitudes and qualities? First of all, he is multi-talented, he is a musician, covering rap, bass, guitar, R&B, etc.; he has his own records, gigs, production team, which means he can support himself with his hobbies. He also does some fine art things, such as painting and poetry.
Also, he keeps working out, he just finished his boxing lessons before we met. He is a highly disciplined person. He manages his life well and has a clear plan. What's more worth mentioning is that he has a happy family and a warm social network.
For him, success comes from art, fitness & self-discipline, and a warm network.
07/03/2022 - Raheel
"I came out of prison because I learned the system and how to apply myself". Raheel successfully ran a number of illegal businesses before going to jail, which once brought him considerable income and prestige, and after he got out, he shifted his business thinking and knowledge of crime to brighter causes such as community safety (his Street Gym), government acts. By teaching peopleespecially adolescent -how to start a business, make choices, and plan for the future, he maintains a sense of mission to protect people from crime.
For him, success comes from wisdom, responsibility, and "applying myself”.
10/03/2022 - LJ.Flanders
Before the jail, LJ was an entrepreneur who studied music business and management. In a prison with very little outdoor time, LJ learned how to use his time efficiently, and later he successfully applied for a personal training course about body sculpting. The inmates were curious about what he had learned, which led him to the idea of making a prison exercise manual. After being released, “I now run prison workshops that facilitate rehabilitation and prevent reoffending, and I’m starting a fitness-based social enterprise for ex-offenders”.
For him, success comes from wisdom, fitness & self-discipline, responsibility.
Analysis
Whether it was Carl, or Raheel and LJ, they actually already possessed some extraordinary qualities, such as intelligence, perseverance, kindness and so on, before they went to prison. Those are likely to come from their warm family, healthy social networks, and good education, etc.The limitation of time and space inside the prison kept them away from the original expansive landscape, and they invisibly used the prison as a place for self-reflection. Time seems to slow down and everything becomes clearer, which makes them mentally replenish themselves.
The factors that lead to those positive probation cases tend to come from pre-prison, which is related to family, education and unique experience.
Internal Analysis & Co-Creation.
It is not realistic to intervene on every PoP's pre-prison stories. If we can't easily intervene at the mindset or experience, can we find some easier and more realistic touch points?
We went back to the ACE's office in Canning Town and worked with the NMs to collate and analyze the insights we had gathered through desk and ethnographic research.
Pyramid of PoPs' needs
Based on all the research above, and with the help of eight navigator mentors, we attempted to construct a hierarchy of needs for people on probation. We hoped to find some commonalities in countless different cases, and we found that for all the guys that were on probation, the key to success was their soft skills, access to opportunities, and strong support networks. Looking at this pyramid, these strengths are built on the foundations of physiological needs and safety needs. Each person on probation’s needs and therefore their success is relative to their current needs in this map. Some guys it is about housing, others, family support, others, esteem and purpose.
Pyramid of NMs' success
During that process, we noticed that the ACE team dedicated to helping people on probation did not have a similar hierarchy of value. All they have is a positive but vague goal and a fragmented work structure.
So we switched direction here and took a different path:
How might we design tools for reflective and agile practice for ACE?
so we can co-create, identify and evaluate together key intervention points and embed actionable change in-flight.
15/03/2022 - Co-creation
As we said, ACE is a growing pilot program without a clear, agile workflow, so we wanted to embed organic elements such as pauses, reflections, peer exchanges into their work structure. This allows them to learn and improve by acting, rather than standing still. We have also tried to lead them to use some design methodologies to better define their work, user needs, and responses. To test this hypothesis we conducted a workshop - including a self-reflection and co-creation session. But:
Our hypothesis had its limitations and without buy-in we could not progress with a co-created approach. Why did it not work? The staff are institutionalisation, action-orientation and value-based approach, this meant they wanted to see more work being delivered than analysed. The topic areas and tools are new to the team which made delivery challenging in the timescale. And, lastly the process was perhaps more suitable for execution at the pilot architecture level.
Back to PoPs' needs
So we went back to the hierarchy of needs. The question we asked ourselves was whether these needs are already being fulfilled by any existing services? Through further research we discovered that there are a number of programs and services spread across the country that support the aforementioned needs. So why is the recidivism rate still so high? What is missing?
What is missing?
Take ACE as a rehabilitation programme. The navigator mentor provides the value of increased engagement by having a reduced caseload. It exists because probation practitioners are overburdened with high caseloads and therefore have low and infrequent engagement time with their individual service users. But what’s the root problem here? We believe it is simply - Time.
Having shadowed the NMs’ journey, the action plan was identified as a key moment where time was lost. The action plan is when practitioners identify the needs of each of their service users and make a plan to find the right support for them. Currently to find programmes they use an internal Resource guide, Google or their Peer networks. They expressed that these methods are time-consuming and information is often either not available or inaccurate, resulting in rejections of referrals, costing between 1 to 7 hours of their working week.
So how can we buy time so that practitioners or mentors, can work at their full potential? Our hypothesis is that:
the programmes are not the problem, but the lack of ways of getting to those programs!
Definition
& Delivery
Now, finally, we defined the problem...
There are too many people on probation, and each probation officer may be dealing with thousands of cases, so the time allotted to a single person on probation may only be 30minutes. Time often affects trust and healthy relationships, so it is also linked to high recidivism rates.
Problem definition
Currently the MOJ funds programmes and sends them out into the void hoping to fulfil a service users needs. Further hyper localised community-based services also create value in the space - unseen by the MoJ. The beneficiaries and intermediaries of these services use various means to get a hold of these programmes through 3 ways as mentioned before. As the MoJ and community generate more programs, the redundancy of these programs increases, limiting its potential impact.
Design concept
A directory of probation services
What if we consolidate the programs into one open space optimising program usage, saving time and therefore creating greater impact, which is more time and resources can be spent on building relationships and trust so that PoPs have a greater chance of engaging, complying and reintegrating into society.
Functional prototype
After we decided to design a directory, our first problem was how to categorize the information logically with the needs of NMs as the core. So we first built a Google sheet as an MVP for our future product and shared it with NMs for testing and iteration. The testing period was one week, after which we received some feedback.
Presentation
Turning expectation to reality
Compass empowers frontline prison, probation and community-based practitioners to spend more time doing what they signed up for - making a difference.
Epilogue
Theory of change
Once the directory is developed we can start to build it better. Compass can become a resource centre, collaboration tool, a progress checker and ultimately, a community builder connecting people not just programmes.
For People on probation, Compass can improve digital literacy and provide motivation, agency, support and knowledge. Service providers can be seen, learn from others, collaborate on projects and scale their initiatives. And for the Ministry of Justice, they can make better decisions and provide funding where most needed, through data collection and categorization which enable them to identify service area gaps and surpluses.
Reflections
This is a five-month project, and the process is undoubtedly tortuous. In the beginning, our primary focus was on how to change people on probation to make them stable and happy, which we later found to be naive and impractical. Later, we reframed our thinking, to whether it is possible to design an agile, self-iterative work structure for the frontline practitioners. But we were held back by time constraints and the institutionalization of the system. In the end, we have located a smaller intervention point, that is, making the practitioner's work more efficient and easier, which can make the above two concepts possible.
It is a process of gradually losing our naivety and accepting our own finitude and the organic, complex nature of our systems. The Justice system is foremost contrasting. It is rooted, complex, bureaucratic and conservative in values. However, it is also interdependent, adaptive, organic and diverse. The system has no single identity rather a series of competing identities. So what it is? It is Alive. To make a real change in a living system, any intervention must come from the ground up naturally.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the amazing contributions of Carl, Raheel, & LJ who shared their lived experience with us, Naomi and the 8 incredible mentors who provided us with their time and knowledge, and Luke and Gerard who with their expertise helped us make sense of it all!
As we develop a cost/benefit analysis and an in-house implementation strategy from governance, to data protection, we look forward to ongoing conversations with Catch22’s technology team and the Ministry of Justice about turning this expectation into a reality - empowering their frontline staff.
Finally, me personally want to deliver my sincere thanks to my teammates, who are Aditi, Nishtha, Angus, and our tutor Judah Armani. Beyond just working together, I feel like I'm going through life with them. Here is our story.
The end...