Visit someone in prison Including offenders in the booking process

Vision A joined-up visit service designed around offenders and their loved ones; facilitating opportunities for positive contact and providing practical and emotional support towards rehabilitation

Offenders who maintain family relationships and receive visits while in custody are 39% less likely to reoffend
 than those who do not receive visits

We will better meet the needs of users and government by delivering fully end-to-end services We will link user-facing digital services with back office systems to save staff time


What is Discovery?

Before you start building a service, you need to find out whether users need it • who your likely users are • what they’re trying to do • how they do it currently • the problems or frustrations they experience • what users need to achieve their goal

Explore opportunities to include prisoners in the visit booking process, that will work on new technology in digital prisons in the UK, focusing on High Down prison as a pilot, that benefits both prisoners and their visitors, and is also well received by prison staff

Explore opportunities to include prisoners in the visit booking process, that will work on new technology in digital prisons in the UK, by focusing on users needs and scenarios at Cookham Wood, High Down and Berwyn

Visitor led Visitor initiates the visit booking Prisoner led Prisoner initiates the visit booking

Visitor Prisoner Collaborative booking process

What value will we deliver to prisoners?

A collaborative visit booking service that empowers prisoners to arrange visits together with their loved ones

Kick Off Blocked User Interviews Berwyn & Cookham Wood visits Update Create & test Scenarios, Send surveys Visitor interviews High Down visit Create & test experience maps (paper based), Collect surveys Analysis July 13 July 20 July 27 Aug. 3 Aug. 10 Aug. 17 Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sep. 7 Sep. 14 Sep. 28 Sep. 21 Opportunities Desirability Feasibility

2 prisons 4 prisoners 9 visitors 5 prison visits booking staff 4 prison finance staff 2 digital prison IT officers 8 prison wing staff

Key questions 1. Are there unmet user needs when booking a prison visit that could be helped by including prisoners in the online booking process? And what are they? 2. How does the online booking process compare to alternative ways to book? 3. How does prisoner inclusion in the visits booking process relate to overall MoJ priorities of improving public safety and reducing reoffending? 4. How does prisoner inclusion in the visits booking process relate to overall MoJ priorities of making our department more efficient and more open? 5. What standards and guidelines need to be considered when creating an in- cell digital service for prisoners?

Hypothesis 1. Visitors want prisoners to be able to invite them for a visit, to ease anxiety about not knowing if the prisoner wants to see them or not 2. Visitors are concerned about prisoners initiating visits because they will feel controlled and pressured to visit 3. Staff want prisoners to be included in the process, because this could result in a better relationship between prisoner and staff 4. Prisoners want a say on who comes to visit them, and greater visibility over bookings 5. For a prisoner, it is more important on who comes to visits than when they get a visit 6. For the visitor, it is more important to schedule the visit time around their needs than the prisoner 


Kick Off Blocked User Interviews Update Create & test Scenarios Send Surveys Create & test experience concepts (paper based) Collect surveys Analysis July 13 July 20 July 27 Aug. 3 Aug. 10 Aug. 17 Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sep. 7 Sep. 14 Sep. 28 Sep. 21 Discovery activities completed

1. Prisoner initiated encourages responsibility & decision making 2. Booking staff freed up to assess risks 3. Prisoner initiated works if family unit works 4. High visits cancellations and no show rate 5. Prisoner initiated well received at the moment but risks of scale 6. Reservation rather than booking mindset, limits slot availability 7. High volume of prisoner ‘apps’ is a hidden workload on staff 8. Dependency on prisoner phone credit is risky & hidden cost 9. Visitor requests for information are not secure 10. System replaces, rather than enhances, communication with prison staff 
 Prisoner led visits: pros and cons

It’s one less thing for me to do, and it gives him (the prisoner) something to do

Stressed out prison officer on computer The men have to choose if they want that Mars Bar, or money to make that phone call to arrange a visit

16% of prisoners do not turn up for booked visits

28% of visitors do not turn up for booked visits

Visits no-shows projected in the thousands

High cancellation rates In the last 4.5 months at Berwyn… Total number of cancellations = 233 Number of unique prisoners who have cancelled = 105 Avg. number of cancellations per prisoner who cancelled = 2.22 Most cancellations by one prisoner = 23 


High cancellation rates especially at peak visiting times

High volume of prisoner ‘apps’ is a hidden workload on staff

20% of prisoners have £0 pin phone credit • Emergency credit frequently requested for phone call to book visits • No tracking of phone credit in relation to visits • Phone credit tied to visits process, but managed separately • Potentially excluding prisoners from booking visits because they can’t afford to Total prisoners = 581 £0 balance after top up = 116 % No balance after top up = approx. 20%

1. Protects the visitor from unwanted visit requests and feeling controlled 2. Free if booked online 3. Frequent cancellations and no shows 4. Prisoner and visitor cancel visit by phone but this is not communicated to visits booking staff 5. Prisoners sometimes do not know who is coming to visit and when 6. Prisoners don’t want some visits 7. Dependency on limited visits booking staff slows down the booking process 
 Visitor led visits: pros and cons

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I don't know who he's going to choose. Probably whoever's sent the most money this month! I think if it is a very close member of their family like a wife, girlfriend, mum, then yes; but if it's someone like myself visiting a friend then them trying to plan what I'm doing isn't going to work, because my flexibility isn't there!

Reliable visits data not available for visitor led ● 1/3 of all visits that are scheduled are simply not updated in any way ● Prison staff used to paper documentation and trails, a major shift to keep digital records updated ● Unreliable technology experience by visits booking staff reinforces the manual recording of visits data ● visits not being updated consistently means that it is not really possible to provide estate-wide figures where the visit status plays a pivotal part of the calculation 


Visitor led visits data Normal Completion The visit was held and ended at the scheduled time for that visit slot. Cancelled This could be down to either the Governor pulling the visit or visits for security reasons or the visitor cancelling the visit for their own reasons. Scheduled Visit was scheduled to happen but has not been updated Prisoner / Visitor Completed Early The named party has decided to get up and leave the visits hall (for whatever reason) before the scheduled finish time of the visit. Terminated By Staff For either operational reasons at the jail, or for reasons with the specific visitor/ prisoner the staff running the visits have ended the visit ahead of scheduled end time. VDE Visitor Declined Entry, this could be for a variety of reasons (recently released prisoner returning to the establishment without consent to visit within the exclusion period, visitor intoxicated, abusive, etc)

Cookham Wood

High Down

Clinks charity feedback ● Concerns that prisoner initiated visit requests are scheduled around their time (e.g. gym) and not with the visitor’s availability (e.g. due to work commitments, child care, available finances, etc) in mind ● Visitor being unavailable for requested time / date means half empty visit halls and frustrated prisoners ● Concerns that visitors may feel manipulated by prisoner visit requests ● Been instances when prisoners have booked a visit they know was not feasible so that they could miss out on prison duties (e.g. education, work) ● Issues around necessary literacy skills for some prisoners and the need for additional support

Visitor led Prisoner led + Prisoner manages visit allowance Encourages prisoners to be responsible Encourages prisoners to make trade-offs Visit booked immediately (if visitor on list) Staff freed up to access risks - Depends on prisoner pin phone credit Prisoners don’t know when visitor is available Limited availability of slots High cancellations & no shows Difficult for visitors who don’t want to visit + Flexible to visitor schedule Free if booked online Visitor manages relationship and contact Efficient allocation of visit slots (1 per request) - Prisoner has no say on how allowance used Visitors can be unaware of prisoner location High dependency on visits booking staff Time lag for visit to be processed Prisoners don’t want some visits Prisoners unaware of who’s visiting No shows and cancellations

Visitor Prisoner Opportunities for collaborative booking + Free up visits booking staff Process is not held up by staff Prisoner has a say on who he wants to see & not see Prisoner is aware of who is visiting and when Visitor gets reassurance the prisoner wants to see them Visitor can choose if they want to go to a visit Visits works with visitor schedule Visitor knows where to go for the visit Visits cancellations show slot available asap Encourage 2 way decision making/collaboration

Kick Off Blocked User Interviews Berwyn & Cookham Wood visits Update Create & test Scenarios, Send surveys Visitor interviews High Down visit Create & test experience concepts (paper based), Collect surveys Families interviews * Berwyn, Cookham Wood & High Down visit * Analysis July 13 July 20 July 27 Aug. 3 Aug. 10 Aug. 17 Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sep. 7 Sep. 14 Sep. 28 Sep. 21 Next steps

What qualities should a collaborative booking process have? (5 minutes)