#playandinteraction

[kylieclarke-bct]

Play and Interaction - Reflective Statement 2017:

Doodle Dolls produce sustainable felt dolls designed from the drawings of underprivileged children, that gives back a percentage of the profits on the sale of the dolls to the artist. (Brown, Clarke, McIntyre & Worrall, 2017) This concept is developed through studio with four students, Amanda Brown, Katriel Worrall, Sophie McIntyre and myself, Kylie Clarke. Through my Play and Interaction paper, I am working on a sub-project alone, in which the adult can upload their child’s favourite drawing to the Doodle Dolls app, animate and then explore the world full of fun challenges and games.

Doodle Dolls was created to assist, child poverty, and sustainability and textile waste research:

Child poverty rates are increasing at a rapid rate. As Roy (2016) states, “one-third of the country’s children, or 300,000, now live below the poverty line – 45,000 more than a year ago”. Doodle Dolls is a direct response to this issue, with the aim of providing aid to those in poverty, one child at a time.

Secondly, figures obtained by the Ministry for the Environment show that, every year, the textile waste present in New Zealand’s landfills increases by around a hundred million kilos (The Wireless, 2014).

Doodle Dolls will turn unwanted textiles that cannot easily be resold into new, desirable products that will minimise the amount of landfill waste.

My initial feedback in week 9 was extremely useful and thorough. I discovered that my designs were well developed for a one person team, though I needed to research more into the challenge and gaming aspect of the application. Thomas W. Malone (1982) looked into two key questions around gaming user interfaces:

Why are games so captivating? and,

How can the features that make computer games captivating be used to make other user interfaces interesting and enjoyable to use?

To make a game a ‘challenge’, there needs to be a goal where the outcome is uncertain. Creating this for a child’s app for 5-8 year olds can be rather difficult, keeping in mind the ability of a 5 year old and an 8 year old varies (Malone, 1982). This is why I have created three early prototypes of three types of games that could be included, but not limited to; a multiple click game, platform game and a social network simulation game. If given enough time, or had another person on my team, I would have playtested these a lot more and made sure the three flowed together, and if not, created a fourth game option.

Alongside the challenging element, they also need to be able to hold the child’s attention and keep them coming back to the app. Chris Crawford states that a very important motivation to play an engaging game is fantasy fulfillment. Taking the child away from the real world and placing them in the fantasy world alongside their animated character allows the child to “escape” and to experience “symbolic exploration”. It is critical for humans, especially children to explore in a made up world where they can recreate “our art and our games”. (Crawford, 1984). My aesthetic is simple, yet requires full imagination with the challenges included such as the ability to gain points/coins/apples and level up through the child’s chosen way in the exciting and interactive world.

A very similar example of an interactive child’s ‘toy-to-life’ application is Play-Doh Touch. This company uses a special product with their app to connect the children with their physical creativity and their explorative traits. Play-Doh Touch uses a special stamper to create a character with the child’s chosen coloured play-doh. Their parent then scans in the character and is animated instantly, ready to be interacted and explored with (Perez, 2016).

One of the great aspects of this product is the ability to create a well crafted character no matter how inaccurate the toddler is at building their play-doh masterpiece. This allows ALL children to be able to scan in an animal without worrying if it will work, meaning the reliability of the process is accurate which is a theory I should have implemented into my application. At 5-8 years old, many kids will not be able to draw a clear image therefore making the animation process in the application very difficult. In future, to prevent this occurring, Doodle Dolls can create a variation of character colouring pages on their website, so the parent can print it out and let the children colour them in. This means the images will already be pre selected and all that needs to be generated is the colours used by the child to create a unique design.

An aspect that users did not enjoy though was the non-challenging aesthetic. Perez (2016) states, “Play-doh fails to create a compelling world after the whizz-ban glee of its digital trickery wears off.” Other than the initial scan, there is no challenge in the game and nothing for the children to work towards, therefore falling short of enjoyment and repetitive play. She also states that her child quotes “Mommy, this is boring.” There was no advanced gaming technique that allowed her child to progress through the game.

The idea of a colouring page is used in the Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life - Amazing Creations Playroom area. This brand new section in Kelly Tarltons are targeted for toddlers to older children, where they can draw their own fish, scan it into their machine and watch it come alive on the huge interactive screen in front of them. This area is perfect as a resting point, where parents can grab a coffee and relax/chat while their child enjoys their time at Kelly Tarltons (Kelly Tarltons, n.d.).

I managed to view this exhibit in early 2017 when it was just released. It was a relaxing room to be in, where children were scattered around the tables, using the crayons and drawings provided. The environment was a relaxing one where some parents were scattered amongst the children, helping them create their masterpiece, where others left their children to their own creativity and took advantage of the coffee in the area. The idea of the parents helping their children colour in, is the idea I wanted to add to my application. I want to encourage this relationship over art, then through a screen, encouraging the continuation of play with their creation. Unfortunately, my downfall was time, and I was unable to playtest this theory and whether it was going to work with families behind closed doors, compared to an interactive installation in a public space.

In week 9, Ben mentioned that I needed to establish whether the app is a ‘challenging game’ or a ‘toy’. From the research that I have found, which is backed up through the Play-Doh Touch research and limited playtesting, I have discovered that the best interaction is a simple challenging one where the child develops their skills and creativity by aiming towards a simple goal. There is always development in the app which means the usage will be consistent, the child won’t get bored and the opportunities are endless. Of course, this is a Doodle Dolls 2.0 idea, so all these theories I have established and contextualised are still in prototype stage. This means that certain aspects may not work due to restrictions in playtesting. The lack of game testing is also the main thing I could have changed through the semester, which I know would have enhanced my design decisions.

REFERENCES:

Brown, A. Clarke, K., McIntyre, S. Worrall, K. (2017). AUT University: Doodle Dolls. Auckland. Unfinished student project.

Crawford, C. (1984). The art of computer game design.

Kelly Tarltons. (n.d.). Amazing creations | kelly tarlton's sea life aquarium. Retrieved from https://www.kellytarltons.co.nz/explore/amazing-creations/

Malone, T. W. (1982, March). Heuristics for designing enjoyable user interfaces: Lessons from computer games. In Proceedings of the 1982 conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 63-68). ACM.

Perez, S. (2016, November 18). Hands-on with play-doh touch, the app that brings kids’ creations to life | techcrunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/18/hands-on-with-play-doh-touch-the-app-that-brings-kids-creations-to-life/

Roy, E. A. (2016). New Zealand's most shameful secret: 'we have normalised child poverty'. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/16/new-zealands-most-shameful-secret-we-have-normalised-child-poverty

The Wireless. (2014). The impact of throwaway threads. Retrieved from http://thewireless.co.nz/themes/impact/the-impact-of-throwaway-threads

[kylieclarke-bct]

Play and Interaction - Doodle Dolls App Week 9 Crit

Week 9 was an important one for all of my papers, as all deadlines seemed to land at the same time. Week 9 crit for Play and Interaction was super helpful and i was able to gather some good critique from Ben and some students. Ben mentioned that I had done enough work on these designs and from no on, use the last three weeks to reflect, research and iterate. I plan to look into some children games, as well as research into exactly what parents and children need/want from a game. 

Below are my 2nd/3rd iteration designs created over the past two weeks that I showed at crit. I have commented on design myself, showing bits I am not happy with, what was different from each design and the differences/benefits of each one. 

Start up page:

Sign Up/Sign In pages:

Upload Drawing Page:

Entire Map Page:

Game One Example (Farmville type game - growing plants and levelling up):

Game Two (Click as many time as they can type game) and Game Three (platform/multiplayer game) Examples:

As mentioned above, crit was extremely helpful. Ben asked an interesting question about whether I was aiming the app to be a game? or a toy? I hadn’t really thought about it up until then, and I still not sure. This is what the next few weeks are for - to research this and test it out. 

I don’t necessarily need to make the app a ‘challenge’. As I am aiming it for children between 5-8yrs, the children are not at the age yet where there only mission is to win. They still want to have fun and enjoy the game, but the games themselves still need to b slightly challenging. 

A student from the class, mentioned I should also start playing some kids games, to get some ideas of how they work and also design. I think this will be extremely helpful knowledge to get seeing as the flow in my opinion, isn’t quite working the way i’d like it to. Another thing to look into and play test for the next three weeks before the youtube video and slides are due. 

Last thing I’d like to look into in regards to the flow AND connecting the game to the child in a challenging yet fun way. Claudine mentioned the idea about inputing age and changing the level content for that particular age. I want to see if this is something that can be done, and if so, how? If I can find some games that already do this, then even better. 

Ben mentioned a tv series called Sarah and Duck that I would also like to look into soon. 

Three weeks to go and I feel like I have reached a huge milestone, though still plenty to do!

[kylieclarke-bct]

Week 7 - Play and Interaction - First Iteration of DD App

Over the first week back, I tried to start designing the app electronically. (I have designed it all on Photoshop). The user flows that I have created (in my last blog) actually help tremendously. Knowing exactly which page connects to what has helped me develop the flow of the app so far. I drafted a simple version: 

From here, I started to design the pages. I struggled a little with the choice of colour (not really knowing which colour will represent what) I have picked a two shades of blue to start with because this colour is a very neutral colour for both genders and ages. Here are my first iterations:

Start page - open the app to see this.

Sign up page - new members sign up here

Upload page - members upload child’s drawing and animate* - *(this could end up happening in v2.0)

Sign in page - for returning members

(I also have a map image as well, which doesn’t want to download - could be due to size.)

I need to make sure that I follow the design rules. I am designing for iOS for this project, though in our 2.0 version, there will also be android. One thing that I do need to change is on the map, I have the back button at the top facing to the left like a normal back button, when I have this animation of the back button swiping up. Small things like this still need to be changed. 

I am using Invsion to animate my application, so even though I am designing it fully on Photoshop for now, I can put them all together and animate the buttons so I can get a sense of how the app would work if it was to be coded. This will also help when I am showing it to the team to get feedback and see if there is anything I should take away or add to the application. 

Next plan is to talk to my DD team about my idea, get some feedback and create the next iteration. Ben mentioned I aim to have another 3 pages showing how three examples of the types of games played which will be in my second iteration before week 9 prototype.

[kylieclarke-bct]

Play and Interaction - Week 6 - User Flows and Crit:

This week, I felt like I made a break through with this paper. Up until now, I have been struggling to define what my project was exactly with this paper seeing as I am also working on it with three other students through Studio. Finding something to break off studio and complete that was worth 15 points rather than 30 was definitely a struggle. I finally narrowed down possible ideas to an app, where I do have very little experience in, though still wanted a challenge this semester. Also, creating an app related to doodle dolls means Ben can clearly see what I am working on through this paper and then through studio. 

User flows - Four Ideas + Trello:

Above are the four user flows I showed in my youtube presentation during crit last week. I will expand on what the feedback was on these in my crit reflection below.

I also have added a list in our Doodle Dolls Trello board, just for myself to keep track of what I still need to do + It is also helpful for my other team members to see what I am working on through Play and Interaction. 

Crit reflection + Slides:

Concept 1: An extension of the website, where the adult can input their Childs drawings with ease and straight from their phone. No hassle. 

Concept 2: Just a game for children. They have this world to explore, where they can enter parts of the map and play games, earn points etc.. 

Concept 3: Is a combination of both, + more. The adult can send in an image, and then have it animated, for it to be sent back and then the children can interact with the environment, with their drawing/character. 

Concept 4: Is idea 3 + multiplayer. This is the same concept as 3 but the games can also be multiplayer, where parents can play alongside their children for connection play + safety, especially if they are a lot younger. 

Overall I feel pretty pleased with the feedback I received and also the stage I am at. I have given myself a good 5 weeks to have a draft mock up of my first app design iteration for the next crit lined up, which means I have plenty of time to reflect on the feedback of my presentation and take the constructive criticism on board. 

Ben and other students in the room seemed to like my app ideas, specifically idea’s 3 and 4. Ben mentioned that they were more involved and more likely to keep the users interested. They had a better connection with Doodle Dolls and with themselves, especially idea 4. He also mentioned that until players get involved, they have no idea what the game is. This could be a disadvantage, and I may have to look into this a bit more when designing the application. 

A couple fo students also gave me a bit of advice. Charles mentioned that the animation idea was really cool, though it may take too long to get the animation back and may lose users in the meantime. Using an instant animation tool, (eg - uploading the image and then using pivot points to instantly animate the drawing) will be much faster and ensure the users stay on the application as long as they can. Lara also mentioned to me afterwards if I include an audio section, where the adult could get the child to explain the drawing and use that in some creative way. This also adds another connection element between parent and child. Something to think about. 

Overall, I feel like I am on the right track. It is time to dig deep now and actually design something I am proud to show my studio team. Ben mentioned that it was well planned (could have been accidental) though a good spin off from studio. I also need to remember that while designing games, I don’t necessarily need to look at other games for inspiration. I can get ideas from other every day things, like nature, other mediums and subjects, books etc.. 

In terms of the presentation, I need to remember for week 9, that my slides should be more image based. I felt like I had far too many words on the slides and was hard for the audience to read and listen to what I was saying. Making the presentation professional this early as well, gives me practice for my final presentation in week 12. 

[kylieclarke-bct]

Week 4 + 5 - Research and Development: Play and Interaction:

Week 4 and 5 have been slow for both Studio and Play and Interaction. I unfortunately did not get as much research as I would have liked to get in week 4, which is why I am combining the two weeks together into one blog post. This does not mean research will stop though. I will still be reading into certain elements through the process, for both studio and play and interaction.

As a brief overview as to where I am at: 

Child Poverty - Week 4 was the end of our research topics for studio. This meant that I completed prison integration and we decided to not focus on that for this semester through studio. Amanda looked into Child Poverty so after having a discussion with her, I managed to gather a lot of info in one studio session. In week 3, I initially wanted to research my own facts around Child Poverty, though for one - it was already being done in our studio group and two - I thought it would be better for myself and our team to focus on a subject/idea none of us had looked into yet. This also means that marking later on will be easier as Ben can clearly see what I have completed for studio and play and interaction. 

Installations and events - this was a very trick topic that I first attempted to find more about, and ended up only finding one event, and a few organisations that had conversation evenings/awareness talks based around Child Poverty in NZ.

Applications - I started to think about more, how will we be able to connect with the parents and children? and how will we keep them engaged enough for them to come back and do business through us again? This is where I started to look into apps, child friendly + games + input/output + child poverty related.

Idea’s starting to form - possible application idea for children to interact with Doodle Dolls affectively. 

Child Poverty Main Facts: (That have surfaced from Amanda’s Child Poverty research for Studio)

Child poverty “can lead to serious and prolonged mental illness in children” (Feek, 2017), that can eventuate into a problematic adulthood that has a negative effect on both the individual and society as a whole (Peters & Besley, 2014).

Poverty rates are consistently higher for those aged 0-11 years old, compared to children 12-17 (Feek, 2017). This is Doodle Dolls target market.

Child poverty rates are increasing at a rapid rate. As Roy (2016) states, “one-third of the country’s children, or 300,000, now live below the poverty line – 45,000 more than a year ago”.

Stuff (2016) estimates that “…90,000 kids are living in severe poverty” and that “New Zealand has a goal to halve poverty by 2030"

Peters & Besley (2014) state that “New Zealand has substantial rates of child poverty and material deprivation. These rates significantly exceed those of many other developed countries and, at least on some measures, are much worse than three decades ago. The evidence suggests that child poverty, especially when experienced in early childhood and/or when persistent and severe, can be very damaging —both to the children directly affected and society as a whole. Amongst other things, child poverty contributes to the large educational achievement gaps between children from lower and higher SES backgrounds. For such reasons, there is a powerful case for reducing child poverty. I have argued that decision-makers have the available policy tools to alleviate child poverty and mitigate its effects–at least to some extent. The issue, in other words, is not the means, but the political will.”

Sadly, “NZ has the worst teen suicide rate of the developed world, with 16 suicides per 100,000 in 2016" (Fyres, 2017)

Feek (2017) suggests that “Prevention is the key; which can be aided by policies that support better incomes…“. Hopefully Doodle Dolls will be the beginning of a solution to end New Zealand’s dismal child poverty rates.

Installations and Events:

FLY ME UP TO WHERE YOU ARE: The Contact Festival Playground

Fly Me Up to Where You Are New Zealand in Upper Frank Kitts Park is the culmination of a four-year project that began in 2012 and has gathered 15,000 flags made by children aged 8–12 at Decile 1 & 2 schools in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

The project encouraged the children to tap their creativity in order to process their concerns, hopes, dreams and ideas. It offers a platform where their voices can be expressed as a collective artwork.

Fly Me Up was facilitated by artist Tiffany Singh, who considers it a priority to provide a space for learning, sharing and connecting to the world around us. Her hope is to ignite enthusiasm and responsibility in our younger generations for the wellbeing of the community and the world we wish for.

When I found this event, I thought it was such a brilliant idea, it was a shame the flags were up for only so long. I was also touched by the amount if children writing quite serious things on these flags. According to a Stuff article by Rachel Thomas, “While some wanted people to recycle and "be happy", Auckland-based creator Tiffany Singh says the biggest thing our youth wanted were basic needs.” "In terms of being safe and warm and having food on the table ... that was eye-opening." The simple fact that these children knew they were struggling, and knew their families were in a tough place makes them that much more inspirational and makes me what to be able to connect to the children themselves through the Doodle Doll process, rather than just having adults send in their child’s drawings. 

Stuff article: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/77297349/nz-festival-flag-art-project-collects-dreams-of-kiwi-kids

Website: http://www.festival.co.nz/2016/events/fly-me-where-you-are-new-zealand/ 

I also found some support groups for poverty and hardship that were promoting classes/advice for people in need. (Save the Children, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Just Speak.) The only issue with this, is you had to be looking for the help to find it. Doodle dolls is an opportunity for children to put themselves in a better place, as well as have fun while doing it. Another issue is, if the parents do not not get something out of it, why would they put the effort into sending an image for their child if all they are trying to do themselves is put food on the table for the family. What are these families priorities? 

Applications: 

This research has been started, though will be extended into week 6 and through my play testing process. What makes a good application? What makes children want to use it? What will keep the children/adult coming back to use it? Talking to Ben on Thursday really helped with this. He mentioned that I had to make sure the app was for a purpose. I pitched the idea that it would be an app version of our business (adult uploads an image through the app and then is alerted when the application is complete, though Ben stated that this wasn’t necessarily faster/easier and wont have the users coming back. 

Games are so commonly downloaded on the app store, in fact, Over 5 million iOS games are downloaded per day by 63 million iOS gamers in the US and EU. Games represent the largest single App-category on Apple App Stores, and account for half of the downloads of both free and paid Apps. In New Zealand alone, mobile games have been downloaded more than 130 million times in the past year. Games such as Flappy Bird, was such a huge hit for such a simple game, simply because the game was addictive and kept the user coming back, trying to bet their own high score. 

I initially wasn’t going to include games into this app, though doing more research into it and how children’s applications are based around entertainment and education through fun learning could be an interesting way to engage our child users + keep the parent happy that they are having fun and learning at the same time. If there is a way I can combine teaching the child about poverty and hardship in an interesting and engaging way, through an app that also connects the child to the parent, then I think Doodle Doll’s will be starting something really positive. 

I have found a website where it shows highly rated games for children. they state that for children between 5-8, “...socialization and creativity are key -- and believe it or not, there are several quality apps for that! When choosing apps for this age group, go beyond the usual arcade games (although those can be fun) to apps that help kids express their feelings and unleash their creativity.”

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/best-apps-for-kids-age-5-8# 

Next plan of Attack: Developing ideas:

Ben’s advice to complete before next class (pitch and presentation week) was to create a few user flows for adults and children in a early stage of app development. This will be interesting to develop and test when I have an early design of my chosen app. I am going to play around with several ideas, including games and other activities, or just a mobile version of Doodle Dolls. Play testing both will give me a large ground to cover and will allow me to eliminate ideas when I come across them if they are unsuccessful. 

User flows + updated pitch and youtube presentation is the goal to complete in the last week of semester. Heaps of work to do!

References: 

About us. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.cpag.org.nz/about-us/

Best apps for kids age 5–8. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/best-apps-for-kids-age-5-8#

Child poverty and injustice - justspeak. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.justspeak.org.nz/child_poverty_and_injustice

Fly me up to where you are new zealand, 27 feb – 19 mar 2016 – new zealand festival. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.festival.co.nz/2016/events/fly-me-where-you-are-new-zealand/

The issues. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://savethechildren.org.nz/the-issues/

Over 5 million ios games downloaded per day. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://newzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Newzoo_Distimo_press-release_1805111.pdf

Pullar-Strecker, T. (2013, October 30). Nz game studios report huge growth | stuff.co.nz. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/9341992/NZ-game-studios-report-huge-growth

Thomas, R. (2016, March 1). Nz festival: flag art project collects dreams of kiwi kids | stuff.co.nz. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/77297349/nz-festival-flag-art-project-collects-dreams-of-kiwi-kids

[kylieclarke-bct]

Week 2/3 of Studio - Research Stage:

I haven’t done a blog post for last week, simply because my team’s research stages were over two weeks. All four of us went into week 3 Monday studio class with a tiny bit of information, but no where near enough to start analysing it and combining everyones facts together to gage where we want to go with our concept yet, so this week, is just a continuation of digging into our respective research topics.

Topics as follows:

Amanda = Child Poverty

Kat = Sustainability 

Sophie = Child Psychology

Kylie = Prisoner Rehab and Integration

My section of the research topics is certainly a hard one. We had the idea that a huge part of our business would be revolved around humanising prisoners and allowing them to work while incarcerated. This means they could be actually making the dolls for us giving them work, connections and something to do + humanising them to be successfully entered into society and making sure they do no re offend. Department of Corrections states, “...well-designed and delivered programmes can have a real effect on re-offending.” 

To get out everything that I have found that could be useful, I have bullet pointed facts below. This will make it easier for myself and my team to sift through next Monday during our studio session. 

Challenges Confronting Offenders when Released: 

Confronted by a range of social, economic and personal challenges that tend to become obstacles to a crime free lifestyle. These issues are more directly associated with the consequences of being incarcerated. 

Offenders may have a history of social isolation, physical or emotional abuse, poor employment or unemployment and early childhood crime. 

Many offenders come out of prison with poor inter-personal skills, low levels of formal education, illiteracy and innumeracy, poor cognitive or emotional functioning, and/or lack of planning and financial management skills.

The period of transition from custody to community can be very stressful. The period of incarceration may itself have had several “collateral effects”. 

They may have lost their livelihood, personal belongings, ability to maintain housing for themselves and family, and lost important relationships and social networks. 

This can result to homelessness/lack of motivation to change. 

Since 1990, an average of 590,400 inmates have been released annually from state and federal prisons. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has estimated that nearly three quarters of all released prisoners will be rearrested within five years of their release and about 6 in 10 will be re-convicted.

Reintegration/Rehabilitation Programs:

Offenders who complete treatment programs have higher rates of success in terms of their successful reintegration. Factors that come from this are, more years of education, not having a history of sexual victimisation, fewer previous incarcerations, and lower levels of offending behaviour. 

Addressing offending in programmes is the start of success. Making them understand what they did is ‘wrong’. 

Department of Corrections focuses on motivation to change, cognitive-behavioural interventions and general skills to help a prisoner return to community. Includes parenting and practical life skills. 

Salvation Army have housing programs, to help offenders gain accommodation under supervision. 

Before going into rehab: Offenders were assessed before and after sentencing. Assessment tools were then used to identify the offender’s risk of reoffending, their criminogenic (offencerelated) needs, and their responsivity (motivation to change).

Program Development:

Reentry programs are often based on a case-management approach and based on a range of interventions. This means the offenders are interviewed to test to which program is most suitable. 

These program have some form of supervision.

There are three types of offender reintegration programs, 1, Institution-based programs. 2, Surveillance-based transition programs. 3, Assistance based transition programs. 

Institutional programs - designed to prepare offenders to reenter society can include education, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, job training, counselling, and mentoring.

Surveillance-based programs - centered on supervision of offenders in the community following release from confinement. On their own, with advice. (Parole) 

Assistance based programs - Offenders afflicted by mental illness encounter particular problems upon release into the community. These offenders may experience extreme social isolation and at risk for a co-occurring substance abuse disorder. As well, these offenders may encounter particularly difficulties in finding suitable accommodation and securing employment. And, it is likely that most of these offenders will require further medical and therapeutic services and assistance with money management. These factors, in combination with noncompliance of treatment orders, may make these individuals a risk not only to themselves, but to others as well. These offenders are focussed more on stabilizing and rehab. 

The conventional wisdom is that post-release employment is one of the most important elements for an ex-offender to successfully transition back into the community. Released prisoners frequently identify employment as one of the most important factors in their efforts to stay crimefree after incarceration. 

The Clearinghouse included five studies that examined the effects of programs that provided job training and/or post-release employment services for prisoners. Of these five studies, only two found that the program helped reduce recidivism, though neither program had a significant effect on post-release employment. 

Reducing Reoffending:

Interestingly, reintegration and rehabilitation services are not classified under the objective to ‘Improve Public Safety’; rather, they are newly classified as ‘Reducing Reoffending’

The Council’s budget is supposedly covering rehab programs. It seeks to provide for ‘the timely assessment of the rehabilitative and reintegrative needs of offenders and those remanded in custody and ensures identified offender needs are addressed through rehabilitation, education, employment and reintegration activities’

Reducing Reoffending 2016/17 Budget: 47% Rehabilitation 13% Reintegration 3% Training and education 25% Offender employment 12% Case management.

By only identifying the crimogenic needs of the individual, it does not necessarily identify how these ‘needs’ will be met or how they will be influenced in the transition beyond the prison gate in the community. 

The obsession with risk reduction can contribute to fear of offenders and an unwillingness on the part of the public to accept them readily into communities.

An objectification of an offender as a ‘problem’ that needs to be ‘fixed’ or managed can also have implications for how they are viewed when they are released into society—once a human is objectified, society may treat them as being ‘less human’, and less deserving of other human rights

Barriers to Reintegration:

Reducing reoffending and creating a safer society is impacted by how successfully each individual integrates or reintegrates into society post-prison. 

Countries with high imprisonment rates, like the United States and New Zealand, are discovering the links between the lack of opportunities and resources for released prisoners and their risks for reoffending, and are seeking to confront the enormous challenges created by the aftermath of imprisonment

The challenges posed simply by lack of acceptable ID for out going offenders. In an American longitudinal study, it was found that holding some form of identification, either at the moment of release or acquiring one soon after that was not affiliated to the Department of Corrections, was an overlooked factor of importance and related to better job outcomes for released prisoners.

Corrections results of Out of Gate (Out of Gate is only available to offenders serving sentences of two years or less or who have been on remand for more than 60 days.) have seen 67% of prisoners who complete their programme and received the service remain out of prison for six months and 53% for 12 months, which is a small-scale reduction against a sample of comparable offenders who did not engage in the service.

Stability is also relevant. Emergency housing or a boarding house can meet a particular need, especially in the days immediately following release from prison, but research has also identified the importance of stable housing in reducing reoffending. This is a huge problem in New Zealand.

Ex-prisoners do not commonly meet the current criteria for state housing, and current housing stock is ‘not well-configured for this group (largely single males who need smaller units)’. This means ex-prisoners commonly have to rely on private rentals or community-owned housing stock.

Certain demographics of ex-prisoners also may face bigger hurdles to housing, such as 17-year-olds, given that the majority of housing providers surveyed in Auckland-based research only provided specific support for ex-prisoners aged 18 and over

The challenge faced by ex-offenders to obtaining and retaining meaningful employment is not necessarily met by a simple fix or programme, given that the contributing barriers can come from different directions. 

Traditionally, Corrections has focused on the individual ‘needs’ of the offender through its IOM system, with rehabilitation programmes assigned to a prisoner’s personal sentence plan seeking to get offenders ‘work ready’ through skills-based courses dealing with literacy, formal qualifications and life skills.

In 2014, the National-led Government announced an election promise of turning every New Zealand prison into a ‘working prison’, with every eligible prisoner working a structured 40-hour-a-week timetable that included work experience, skills training and education. Minister Anne Tolley announced the strategy as an opportunity for prisoners ‘to learn good habits and take responsibility for their lives’ that would translate into their post-release habits and employment.

In more recent times there has been improvement in seeking to combat some ‘demand’ challenges by partnering with employers and industries to transition some prisoners into work, and increased cooperation between Corrections and Work and Income.

In October 2016, a three-year $15 million pilot scheme was announced by Government where Work and Income case managers will work with a group of prisoners, beginning 10 weeks before release and for 12 months after release to develop individual plans to get them into employment and help them access training and support services.

Women reported receiving slightly more treatment for mental health problems from health staff working in prison, especially from nursing staff, although fewer (one woman only as opposed to 2 percent of the men) had at some stage been transferred to a forensic psychiatry unit. Of the male samples, fewer in total had been seen for a mental health problem but not unexpectedly, more had been in special prison units and equivalent numbers of the sentenced men (20.8 percent) had been seen by a psychologist or psychiatrist. Approximately 2 percent had been transferred to a forensic psychiatric facility at some time in the past.

What Can be Changed? 

That the Department of Corrections makes it standard practice that: 

a. Every prisoner leaving prison has or is supported to apply for a form of ID accepted by most major banks and agencies. 

b. Every prisoner leaving prison has been able to set up their benefit (if required) prior to their release. 

c. Navigation services are extended and are available to all prisoners on their release.

That the Department of Corrections ensures all ex-prisoners are provided with six months of accommodation or the means for stable accommodation. 

Create post-prison public/private industry schemes that will employ prisoners for six months before release and 12 months post release if they have no other employment, dependent on not reoffending. 

That a New Zealand-based ‘Community Action for the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders’ (CARE) Network is developed.

That every person leaving prison should have a sponsor or mentor from a community reintegration service under the umbrella of CARE.

That the Department of Corrections makes reducing racial inequalities in reoffending an urgent strategic priority. 

References:

Department of Corrections. (n.d.). Corrections department nz - rehabilitation and intervention. Retrieved from http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_with_offenders/community_sentences/employment_and_support_programmes/rehabilitation_and_treatment_programmes.html

Department of Corrections. (n.d.). Corrections department nz - rehabilitation programmes. Retrieved from http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_with_offenders/prison_sentences/employment_and_support_programmes/rehabilitation_programmes.html

Essay about jails, prisons, and rehabilitation - 981 words | bartleby. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Jails-Prisons-and-Rehabilitation-F3CVMGXZVC

Griffiths, C. T., Dandurand, Y., & Murdoch, D. (2007, April). The social reintegration of offenders and crime prevention. Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/scl-rntgrtn/index-en.aspx

In Weijers, I., & In Duff, A. (2002). Punishing juveniles: Principle and critique. Oxford: Hart.

James, N. (2015, January 12). Offender reentry: correctional statistics, reintegration into the community, and recidivism. Retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34287.pdf

Johnston, A. (2016, December). Beyond the prison gate. Retrieved from http://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/sites/default/files/uploads/20161207spputsa-prison-gate-2016_report.pdf

Maxwell, G. M., & Morris, A. (2001). Restorative Justice for Juveniles: Conferencing, Mediation and Circles. Hart Publishing Limited.

[kylieclarke-bct]

Week 3 | Play and Interaction, Brief Pitch | Discussion with Ben:

This week has been kind of rough, simply because I have been confused about my project and how I was going to work it around studio. Now that I have pitched my brief and had a discussion with Ben, things are now starting to clear up in my head, which is good news going into week 4 already!

I will be continuing my studio project (Doodle Dolls) through this paper, therefore I will be getting 45 points for this project instead of 30 (studio), this means I am doing a little bit of extra work on this business idea than the other three members of my studio group.

After having the discussion with Ben, the above image is what we have come up with:

For studio, the first few weeks, I am focussing of research for Prisoner integration and Rehab. For this paper, I am focussing on research around Child Poverty, hopefully through tech and society. If I can find examples and research based around tech for this subject, even better.

After the next few weeks, I will be then breaking off into business stuff for studio, which I hope to carry through to this paper, essentially halving the points given. I need to think about doing the extra 10 hours or so of work which combines to the full project, rather than doing 30 for studio and 15 for play and interaction. During this time, I potentially could be helping with prototypes for studio, depending on our research outcomes next week.

Week 6, means it’s Crit time + I will be touching base with Ben, meaning he will advise me what direction to take for the rest of the paper and how it will combine with Studio.

Before week 9, I will then be transitioning into play experience, and hopefully creating something to show that is involving tech and interaction by the end of semester.

A lot of the next few weeks are dependant on what I am doing for studio, so hopefully it will all line up and work out well.

[kylieclarke-bct]

Week 1 - Interaction and Play:

This weeks lecture was very interactive and rather insightful. We were split in groups where we had to write down anything that came to mind when we thought about the Aotea Square. This could have been anything from a foam fight, heavy rain, trampolines, or drinking out of a cup. Random things that could be placed in the space. 

Once we had done that, we then moved around and picked two. I received ‘to come last’ and ‘when you try your best but you don’t succeed’. Having realised I picked up two quite sad things, I tried to make an idea out of it that was fun and original. After reiterating it with a few other people through the lesson, this was the final ‘game’ that I created using the two comments above:

‘Imagine hundreds of tables sitting around the Atoea Square. You sit at one and wait for someone else to sit opposite you. Once seated, one of you can pick up a piece of paper from the box in front of you (on these bits of paper, will be a random topic to debate about). Once you are ready, you have to debate for the other person. The aim to to lose your own debate and enhance the others side. No matter how hard you try to make the other person win, they will come back with something else that will counter act what you just said. It’s a lose, lose battle.’

This idea was made under pressure and definitely could do with a lot more iterating, but it could be used for advertising any debate championships? or maybe an interactive installation to push people out of their comfort zone and enhance personal growth. Even though I came up with this idea, I personally would not feel comfortable throwing myself into this kind of conversation. What would be an effective way to lure in shyer people to this kind of game in a public space, as it would be too easy to watch someone else or keep walking?

Amongst iterating our ‘game’ with our partners, we were also doing these personality tests:

I found some of these questions rather difficult simply because I know my moods can change and depending on what I am feeling, some of these answers would have been different. I tried to pick the answers I would say more often than not. 

The green post it note was the Myers briggs test, which we did not complete though I have done it before. I am I - Introversion, N - Intuition, F - Feelings and P - Perceiving. As stated on the image below, INFP = Sensitive, creative, idealistic, perceptive, caring, loyal. Value inner harmony and personal growth, focus on dreams and possibilities. This result is extremely accurate. 

I am not too sure what I will be doing for this paper just yet, but I am excited for what week 2 brings.