Our Work
The Pilot
Our prototype consists of three main components. It is important to note that our prototype is more internal and structural, not a physical solution we are creating. These include equitable ecosystems, enabling technologies, and policy landscape. We believe this approach will cover the complexity of the problem space and create a holistic solution.
For our equitable ecosystem, we are innovating a novel network of collaborators to connect various leaders in the field who desire to work together, but do not have a method of communicating regularly. Additionally, our ecosystem includes an ethical advisory board that regularly receives feedback from formerly incarcerated students and an emphasis on highlighting nonprofit voices. This ensures we are highlighting the perspectives of our stakeholders.
For our enabling technologies, we are looking into four main options ranging from maturity and feasibility for prisons: Polycom, Ithaka S+R intranet server, Nucleos, and augmented and virtual reality. The most immediate prototype includes the Polycom system to allow for remote instruction and reduce the number of transportation hours required of our professors.
For our policy, we are researching and analyzing the Virginia Department of Corrections policy to understand how to introduce our enabling technologies into our program. For policy, we are also looking into Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and how to officially gain scholarship and partnership with Virginia Tech. An integral part of our prototype for our novel network is connecting the Virginia Department of Corrections with other IT departments in the country that have more access to technology and building bridges nationwide. We are also connecting non-profit and offline network providers throughout the country to Virginia.
For our Spring 2023 course, we are planning to offer students four college credits at Virginia Tech. This will be a Creative Writing Course that incorporates both virtual and in person classes. Through introducing the Polycom system, professors will be able to interact with students outside of traditional class time. Regarding policy, we looked into the Code of Virginia and found that in § 53.1-32, the treatment and control of prisoners; recreation; religious services it states that, “it shall be the general purpose of the state correctional facilities to provide proper employment, training and education in accordance with this title, medical and mental health care and treatment, discipline and control of prisoners committed or transferred thereto.”
We have already begun evaluating the initial prototype using surveys completed before and after the first pilot course. This analysis gives us an insight into how the students feel about the effectiveness of the lessons, similar to surveys students in college take at the end of the semester. For this next stage of the prototype which includes introducing technology, further building our ecosystem, and policy there are new ways we must evaluate the success of those aspects. To test and evaluate our technology we first must acquire the technology and then spend time using it to replicate how the technology would be used in our setting. For the Polycom system, we will purchase 2 systems and set them up in different locations to test audio and video quality, ease of use, connectivity, the ability and success of content sharing, and finally if a lesson could be effectively taught and learned with the technology in place. To evaluate our ecosystem, we can look at frequency of contact and if there are meetings with more than one contact at a time to build an ecosystem instead of a relationship with us at the center. Finally, the main way to test the success of our policy manual is if we use it to implement or change policies to allow for better education and specifically additional technology.
The potential of our prototype and solution concept is to remove such drastic differences in access and quality of higher education in prisons and help all states create programs with public four year universities. Our solution concept is the steps that we take to create our program with Virginia Tech that can be used to consult with other universities, prisons, and departments of corrections. Instead of each of these entities taking multiple years researching and trying to build connections, our solution can come in with our ecosystem of partners, technical knowledge, and policy understanding to streamline the trial and error process and start giving higher education quicker which goes towards our goal of increased equitable access to higher education for incarcerated individuals. Once this solution is scaled the potential is the two million incarcerated individuals who feel more hope in staying out of the prison system because they have education and more opportunities because of it. Our solution concept has the potential to transform our prison system in terms of mental health, education, and recidivism rates which can dramatically impact our workforce and economy.