Transforming prisons by operationalising innovation
The Dutch prison system needs to change to address acute staff shortages. The job of a prison officer has become less desirable for a wide range of reasons from changing expectations of employees to an aging population. More shortages just add to the pressure on existing staff. The work needs to modernise to adapt and make the job more efficient and more rewarding.
The challenge is that prisons and the prison system are not fast changing environments. Not many organisations call their way of working ‘the regime’. This is for good reason as a safety and security focussed environment has to have strong protocols and controls. The challenge is that change can fail as the default position is to snap back to the established model.
Livework is supporting The Netherlands’ Ministry of Justice (MvJ) to go on a change journey by design. We are using design approaches that facilitate people in prisons (prisoners, officers, leaders and policymakers) in a change process that starts at the frontline and engages with the regime head on.
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Challenge
Top down driven by bottom up Innovation
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Prisons are governed by strong procedures and overseen by national policy. A gap exists between the two. Too often change is directed by policy and the ideas and needs of prison officers and prisoners themselves are excluded.
We wanted to reverse the process and prove viable change in practice in prisons – and use this evidence to inform policy.
7 prisons – 5-10 innovation ambassadors in each – over 350 people engaged
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Approach
Transforming Employee experience through operationalising Innovation
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We have led a program across seven prisons where change comes from the frontline. Teams engaged in our innovation program are facilitated to address issues with new ideas. The most viable ideas are prototyped in prisons to prove their value. Those that are successful are adopted and inform policy to enable scale.
Across the seven prisons we are working with small teams (5-10) of innovation ambassadors. These ambassadors are leading teams who are developing ideas and prototypes together. For each prison we have engaged around 50 officers and staff in the program.
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Outcome
A game of Pool – tactical problem with far reaching policy changes around conflict resolution.
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For an example of the type of innovation. One prison team wanted to address the issue of conflict over games of Pool. Frequently games would lead to disagreement and abuse of the cues or balls. Resulting in a shutdown in games – no Pool.
The problem was that this cycle of conflict and shutdown didn’t get anywhere and was a frustration for everyone. Making the job frustrating and wasting time. Reaching for the rulebook as a default response was not working.
We prototyped an alternative where conflict was followed by a period of group or individual calm reflection. The intention was to learn from the event, not ignore it.
The prototype was a success for the prison involved and has informed other prisons and the Ministry policy team.
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Outcome
In a world of control we have made innovation and change possible.
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Our program is ongoing. Livework’s role is to facilitate something that did not previously exist in the prison system or for the Ministry of Justice – creative, human centred problem solving and innovation.
As we iterate the approach successful changes are adopted and inform policy. Step by step the prisons are modernising the work of their core staff.
Nobody said change was easy, but it is smoothed by patient collaboration by the people who it impacts the most. Working this way ensures policy has a warm reception on the frontline.
Fixing staff shortages by a recruitment drive doesn’t fix the underlying reasons why people don’t stay and don’t want to work in prisons.
Fixing the life of the Prison Guard through innovating changes creates a positive environment that feels less of a prison to the Employee. It changes from being ‘The Regime’ to an Employee focused custodian of prisoners.
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