WIREDGOV

On the 18th and 20th May, part of #DigitalJustice2021 week, techUK’s Justice and Emergency Services Programme ran two roundtables with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) exploring the role of technology in the build of existing and future prisons.

It was announced at 2021’s Spending Review that over £4billion worth of capital funding was being committed to making significant progress in delivering 18,00 additional prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020’s. These 18,000 prison places include the 10,000 places being made available through; the construction of four new prisons, the expansion of a further four prisons, refurbishment of the existing prison estate and the completion of ongoing prison builds at Glen Parva and HMP Five Wells.

MoJ reached out to techUK to bring industry together to discuss the vital role technology plays in the build of future prisons and opportunities to embed new technologies at scale. The sessions were organised to ‘future gaze’ the ‘art of the possible’ but to also look at existing systems, challenges, what is working well, how technology can better support rehabilitation programmes and what was learnt from the response to the pandemic.

For the first session we were delighted to welcome speakers: Sophie Otter and Malcolm Casimir, MoJ, Katie Taffler and Tony Worlds, Accenture, Dr Victoria Knight, Criminal Justice Division, De Montfort University and Dan Brown, Meganexus.

The session touched on the soon to launch strategy from HMPPS and MoJ, what is expected and the need to build a coherent ecosystem. It was also used as an opportunity for MoJ to highlight where digital adoption was accelerated across areas of the prison estate as a response to the challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. We were told of the process of rolling out in-cell telephony and video conferencing capabilities and the excellent feedback from both prison staff and prisoners. The better use of tech across prisons was highlighted by Sophie as vital in supporting their rehabilitation and enabling digital skills in order for them to better resettle once they have left prison.

“Digital adoption doesn’t just support the prisoner but it also has the ability to transform services and better support staff”.

 A demonstration was given showcasing how prisoners are moved cells on the old, time consuming, system versus the newly implemented system. It was a powerful demonstration which further highlighted the value of tech to improve efficiencies and transform services.

Whilst we have seen digital adoption accelerated across areas of prison estates, we do still have a long way to do. Current prisons face a number of challenges when considering the roll out of digital tech. Scalability and funding were the first highlighted, followed by challenges which centre around how data is accessed, stored and shared and the quality of the data stored in legacy digital systems. There is work to do around this and MoJ is committed to working with industry to better understand how to efficiently overcome these challenges.

Following Sophie’s introduction we welcomed Katie Taffler and Tony Worlds to share Accenture’s work in this space and how their work can support in ‘reimagining the journey not just for prisoners but staff and guards as well’ and how much of this can be done through the use of virtual reality (VR). Following Katie and Tony, we heard from Dr Knight who discussed ‘Digital Kindness’, rehabilitation programmes focusing on treatment and how COVID-19 has put a spotlight on digital deprivation not just in the criminal justice system but more broadly as well. What role can technology really play in supporting both prisoners and staff?

“We need to create the right hooks that will encourage people and make people want to change”

Following Dr Knight, we heard from Dan Browne, Meganexus who highlighted the need for technology to be used for personalisation and data evidence, covering ‘what works’, how can we build programmes and create opportunities but do more with what we already have. Digital inclusion was also highlighted and the importance of skills and training for service users and staff.

Whilst session one aimed to explore existing systems, challenges, opportunities and the role of technology in transforming services, session two focused on ‘what are the new transformative technologies shaping our prison estates of tomorrow?’ What are the technologies attendees see as being adopted as standard in the next 10-20 years? Sophie highlighted the need to break down the estate into key areas across – reducing reoffending rates, security, safety, rehabilitation, delivery of key services and maintaining family ties and how can technology better support and transform these areas and service delivery? Sophie opened the session with a recap from session one and highlighted the importance of MoJ future gazing and taking part in market engagement sessions such as these. The second session was an opportunity for MoJ to hear direct from industry what new technologies have the power to transform services putting the user at the core.

For the second session we were delighted to welcome speakers: Sophie Otter and Malcolm Casimir, MoJ, Brendan Swarbrick, Sopra Steria, Alastair Thorburn and Brian Duffy, HPE and Justin Day, Cloud Gateway.

Brendan opened by highlighting the importance of session one to cover why ‘getting the foundations right’ is vital if we want to transform existing prisons through the use of technology. Identifying existing challenges and how we can overcome these are key as we start to think about future design and future technology. We must put the user at the centre and explore the journey of the individual. Brendan further highlighted that this isn’t just the prisoner, but officers and staff as well. This was highlighted through the use of biometrics, facial recognition technology and health monitoring solutions as we look to explore how prisoners can be given more independence by enabling them to move around the prisons safely and securely. This also enabled through the use of location data.

Following Brendan we heard from Alastair and Brian who firstly briefly touched on the legal and ethical considerations in the adoption of new emerging technology then how safety can be greatly improved across prisons through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically AI assisted video analytics. There is a huge place for AI across the Ministry of Justice to respond to all areas touched on by Sophie in her opening particularly improving safety and security and supporting prison staff.

To close our presentations Justin shared his thoughts on what good looks like as we look to ‘future proof technology integration’. He covered building secure foundations, access to resources, the value of data sharing across the ecosystem and the barriers to adoption of technology. We heard what we should be discussing more around the use of data, ethical implications to consider and also the importance of answering those key security related questions.

Both sessions were organised to not only give attendees the chance to ask MoJ questions, but for attendees to also be asked questions. Both sessions included roundtable discussions enabling those around the ‘virtual table’ to have an open discussion. Questions included:

• What is the road map for future features and digital adoption across the prison estate?
• How do prisoners feel about the use of in-cell technology rather than previous processes?
• As we look ahead at future prison build, design and service delivery and the role of technology inside prisons, what do you think the greatest challenge or barrier is that we need to overcome? And how can industry work with you to respond to this challenge?

• What does MoJ mean when they say innovation?
• With the potential for so many new systems, platforms, data sets – how doe we ensure simplicity and a single digital identity which follows offenders through court, prison and beyond and not add additional complexity?
• What is the ethical and cultural view on using future technology like biometrics, AI within Prisons? Well received in the private sector, but often considered too ‘big brother’ in public sector settings?
• How do you balance the push for efficiencies through tech with the need for personal contact with regards to rehabilitation? How do we make sure it doesn’t become a conveyor belt of offenders being processed through digital means?

Next Steps

It is clear that although some excellent progress has been made as we explore how our prisons estates are being digitized, there is still a long way to go and we are only at the start of the conversation. Engagement across both sessions was excellent with attendees keen to work with MoJ to transform services broadly across prisons through technology. Whether this is as a response to existing challenges covering legacy infrastructure or interoperability to the use of cloud, biometrics or AI. techUK will continue to work with MoJ on future market engagement sessions but also challenge focused sessions with suppliers to understand the latest innovations and their role in addressing both existing challenges but supporting future prison build and design. Both sessions clearly highlighted the vital role of technology in the existing and future build of prisons, and the need for industry to engage with MoJ to future gaze the art of the possible ensuring future build is compatible with future tech innovation.