Co-producing digitally-enabled courses that promote desistance in prison and probation settings

Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Ahead of Print. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to set out an approach to innovation in criminal justice settings that gives service users a “voice” through the co-production of digital content designed for services that promote desistance. The authors describe the benefits and challenges of involving service users in co-creating mediated digital content within a co-production framework. Design/methodology/approach This paper prese nts a new methodology for developing desistance-oriented programmes. The authors draw on a distinctive co-production exemplar within a prison setting that captures the perspectives of people who have shared their voices and the authors begin to explore the impact that co-production has had for them and for the service. Findings The testimonies of service users involved in this exemplar provide insights into the benefits and challenges of co-production in the criminal justice system more broadly. Practical implications Co-production is a credible service design strategy for developing digit al services in prisons and probation; Complementary Digital Media (CDM) provides a promising pedagogical approach to promoting desistance; CDM enables service users to share their voice and stories to assist their peers. Digitally enabled courses to promote desistance can be well suited to peer supp ort delivery models. Originality/value CDM is a novel approach that uses co-production to creat...

Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - November 2, 2018 Category: Criminology Source Type: research