Finding Common Ground: The Probation Experience Reimagined
By Kelly Gregory, Luis Guzman + Laura Urquiaga, T Lab Prisoner Reentry Team
The U.S. makes up 5% of the world’s total population and over 20% of the world’s prison population. Earlier this year, we published learnings from our research explaining our focus on young adults in the Bay Area.
Over two-thirds of people age 18–25 return to prison, a higher rate than older adults. We asked: How can the unique strengths and passions of young people on probation be leveraged for greater lifelong outcomes, including career and educational gains?
One of the barriers we discovered was that probation meetings were often conducted in close proximity to, or in places highly reminiscent of, incarceration facilities themselves. We tested the idea of using a mobile, neutral meeting space for probation and case management meetings. We also developed an interactive tablet app to help clients develop roadmaps for short and long-term goals.
- Location: Could a neutral, safe location reduce the negative bias that young adults have towards places associated with law enforcement?
- Digital Tool: Would a digital tool engage young adults to take control of creating their own positive path forward?
- Relationship: Would these two components together help to foster positive relationships between the young adults, their probation officers and/or case managers?
We referred to the service concept as “Common Ground” because we wanted our young adults to feel safe, inspired and on equal footing with their community as they move forward in their lives.
With that in mind, we partnered with case managers from Community Works West to participate in our micro-trial and meet with their clients in four locations:
We designed digital prototypes of an app on a tablet with visually engaging action plans on the following topics: preparing for the GED; obtaining a birth certificate; cleaning a criminal record; opening a bank account; obtaining long-term housing.
Through testing this service concept, we learned several things. First, we validated the assumption that meeting outside of law enforcement spaces is important to young adults. These spaces expanded their awareness of what was possible for their futures. They were more relaxed and open, and despite being in public spaces, privacy was not an issue.
The young adults were more engaged with the digital tool than traditional paperwork. The simplified 5–7 step-by-step process made action feel bite-sized and achievable. Ideally, the content is curated by case managers and young adults get the opportunity to suggest content to address barriers.
Finally, we learned that young adults were open to small group case management versus the traditional one-on-one meeting format.
Thank you to all who made this work possible. We hope these findings will allow our community to continue to move forward in supporting formerly incarcerated young adults.
