Innovation and criminal justice: Editorial introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Innovation’, December 2017

Abstract

This Special Issue of the European Journal of Probation considers examples and influences of innovation within criminal justice and community contexts. It offers some timely and insightful contributions from different countries to broader discussions of innovation in this field, a multi-faceted topic which piques significant interest but has perhaps not yet received the level of sustained critical analytical engagement it warrants. This editorial introduction critically reflects on a series of questions and problematisations of innovation and criminal justice. Questions about the forms and functions ('what', 'where' and 'how') of innovation in criminal justice should not be divorced from questions about its architects and beneficiaries, including their intentions and ideologies ('who' and 'why'). Following this, a brief overview of the Special Issue is provided. There is much more yet to be done, as well as celebrated in this area.

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

“…These considerations are valuable when considering how digital innovation could indeed serve to reinforce punitiveness and mass incarceration -because 'innovation is not morally or politically neutral' (Graham 2017).…”

“…Evidence suggests that therapeutic approaches in the justice system are most likely to promote desistance if they enable participants to: form meaningful therapeutic relationships with practitioners (see Ross, Polaschek & Ward, 2008); identify and build on strengths (McNeil, 2012); and, develop skills that allow them to lead better lives (Looman & Abracen, 2013). We believe it is possible to address the challenge of promoting desistance by adopting an optimistic and collaborative approach to innovation, captured by Graham (2017):…”

“…(Graham, 2017, pp. 206) In line with Graham (2017), the potential risks associated with the digitalisation of prisons can be mitigated through the development of technologies in prisons and probation that explicitly promote desistance and use co-production to place service users as close to the centre of their design and implementation as possible. Bovaird ways of "co-producing desistance" in individual, group or community forms.…”

“…He warns that innovation can have the “function of masking the injustices and painful nature of imprisonment behind claims of fairness, benevolence and care” (Cheliotis, 2014, p. 16). These considerations are valuable when considering how digital innovation could indeed serve to reinforce punitiveness and mass incarceration – because “innovation is not morally or politically neutral” (Graham, 2017).…”

“…Evidence suggests that therapeutic approaches in the justice system are most likely to promote desistance if they enable participants to: form meaningful therapeutic relationships with practitioners (see Ross et al , 2008); identify and build on strengths (McNeil, 2012); and, develop skills that allow them to lead better lives (Looman and Abracen, 2013). We believe it is possible to address the challenge of promoting desistance by adopting an optimistic and collaborative approach to innovation, captured by Graham (2017):Innovation is a multi-faceted topic that has the capacity to be researched and celebrated in inclusive and emancipatory ways, making the knowledge base more epistemologically open and co-produced by hearing voices, experiences and expertise that may not have been included or valued as much in the past(p. 206).…”