ResiTogether
App prototype to improve employment among formerly incarcerated persons
Drew King, Weather Nguyen, Taylor Richmond, Julie McUne, Jessica Wang
App prototype to improve employment among formerly incarcerated persons
Drew King, Weather Nguyen, Taylor Richmond, Julie McUne, Jessica Wang
ResiTogether is an app designed to increase employment among formerly incarcerated persons. The app is designed to help formerly incarcerated individuals find jobs, connect with resources, and build a community. The app is designed to be user-friendly and accessible to all users, regardless of their background or experience with technology. The app is designed to be a one-stop shop for formerly incarcerated individuals looking for employment, providing them with the tools and resources they need to succeed in the job market. The app is designed to be a safe and supportive space for formerly incarcerated individuals to connect with others who have shared experiences and build a community of support. The app is designed to be a valuable resource for formerly incarcerated individuals looking to rebuild their lives and find meaningful employment opportunities.
Prototype
Low fidelity and high fidelity prototypes were created to visualize the app's design and functionality. The low fidelity prototype was created using Balsamiq, a web-based design tool, and the high fidelity prototype was created using Figma, a professional design tool. The prototypes were designed to be user-friendly and accessible to all users, regardless of their background or experience with technology.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Wireframes were created to visualize the app's design and functionality. The wireframes were designed to be user-friendly and accessible to all users, regardless of their background or experience with technology. The wireframes were created using Balsamiq, a web-based design tool, which allows for quick and easy prototyping of app designs.
The wireframes are annotated with notes and comments to provide additional context and information about the app's design and functionality. The wireframes are based on user research through surveys and interviews. It is important to note that more skeumorphic elements were used in the high fidelity prototype, due to limitations with Balsamiq's design capabilities.
Wireframe 1: Home screen of ResiTogether
Wireframe 2: Education screen of ResiTogether
Wireframe 1 - Design for Resumes
- Multiple resume feeds are available, one for users followed and another of all resumes in chronological order.
- Users can search for resumes by hashtag.
- Each resume is displayed as a social media listings and follow social media UI conventions.
- Hashtags along bottom can be used to find other resumes via a folksonomy.
- Sharing copies with a link of the resume is possible.
- Users can upload or create a new resume at any time from the skeumorphic icon.
Wireframe 2 - Design for Educational Content
- Three panes allow for organizing the educational portion of this app by content tailored for job search, supporting people who may be struggling while looking for work, and allowing users to save stories for later retrieval.
- Learnings can be searched by hashtag.
- Information is organized in chronological order with hashtags available to find similar stories, following social media conventions.
- Sharing saves a link to the clipboard of the user.
High Fidelity Interactive Prototype
Open the interactive prototype by opening the link from the embedded page below.
User Research Report and Personas
Employment Among Formerly Incarcerated Persons
Project Group Members: Drew King, Julie McUne, Taylor Richmond, Weather Nguyen, Jessica Jie Wang
Problem Brief
Our team aims to investigate and address the lack of employment opportunities and support for formerly incarcerated people, who experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment. The lack of access to employment opportunities can result in serious consequences for both individuals and society, including a likelihood of recidivism and re-incarceration. Addressing this issue will promote social justice and equal employment opportunities, contribute to economic growth, and reduce the burden on the criminal justice system and social safety net programs.
Existing Solutions
We found three solutions helping formerly incarcerated individuals find work: vocational training programs in prison, Felony Record Hub career board, and Ban the Box policy. Vocational training programs aim to teach inmates skills that can help them find jobs after release. Felony Record Hub is a career board for felons to find jobs that don't require a background check. Ban the Box seeks to reduce employment discrimination against those with criminal records by removing questions about past convictions from job applications. While these solutions have benefits, they also have limitations including limited availability and employers finding new ways to discriminate against formerly incarcerated people.
Vocational Training Programs in Prison
- Vocational training is a program that prison provides with the goal of teaching incarcerated individuals some skills that will prepare them to obtain jobs when they are released. The reason why people use these programs is because it provides a plethora of benefits for incarcerated individuals that heighten their chances of gaining employment out of prison.
- Washington State offers a hub that goes indepth and has many links to a wide variety of programs for incarcerated individuals to take part in. This program is called Learning & Working Programs.
- Things that vocational training does well is that people who participate in these programs are less likely to return to prison. Another benefit that comes from vocational training is individuals are more likely to obtain a job out of prison.
- Issues that come from vocational training programs is that it's very limited to a portion of the country as only a third of the states have access to these programs. Local jails do not have these programs either.
- Also having that much information in one place could be overwhelming for someone who is looking for a program to take part in.
- A notable news article about vocational training programs is available from “The Washington Post” that talks about how prisons are training inmates for the next generation of in-demand jobs.
Felony Record Hub
- Felony Record Hub is a website that has an extensive amount of support that specializes in helping incarcerated individuals who were just released from prison to get an opportunity at a second chance. The reason why people use this website is it provides a list of information on open jobs, companies looking for employees, information on where to get housing, locations, programs that help to smooth transitions back into the public, and community pages for members who want to connect with others.
- One thing that this website does well is that it provides an expansive amount of links that gives an abundance of information on what an incarcerated person can look for after being released.
- One issue that arises from this solution is that it's a website so to get access to this a person needs a device of some sort that can connect to the internet to gain access or they can use a computer at a public library.
- There are really no news articles that talk about this but from this screenshot but this website is featured on some other websites like business insider and The Guardian just to name a few.
Ban The Box
- In the early 2000s civil and human rights organization “All of Us or None” launched the Ban The Box campaign that fought for the rights of formerly incarcerated people. Ban the Box aims to eliminate discrimination against job applicants who have prior criminal records and allows people to utilize this resource to promote ethical hiring procedures and lower barriers to finding employment for individuals with criminal records. This policy has been adopted by over 30+ states nationwide.
- One thing that Ban the box policy does well is by removing questions in job applications that specifically talk about past convictions that an applicant might have been apart off.
- One problem that comes from Ban the Box is that it's not available in every state. Another area that falls short is that even though past convictions are not part of job application it doesn't stop job employers from discriminating or assuming that someone might have a troubling past.
- There are articles that talk about the positive and negative on this solution like this one from US News and this one from SHRM
Stakeholder Groups
Halfway House Managers
Halfway house managers, also known as recovery residence managers, utilize a variety of skills which go above and beyond house management. They can act as therapist, housekeeper, drug tester, and administrator all at once or depending on the situation. It is their responsibility to help with the transition of previously incarcerated individuals back into the community, including finding a more permanent residence and finding a new job. The tool we create could be something halfway house managers offer to their residents. Also, it might be something they could utilize to tailor the suggestions to their residents.
Business Owners/Hiring Managers
During our research, we found that one of the best ways to help previously incarcerated individuals find a job is to change the narrative around the types of people who are released from prison. Stories of dangerous criminals are prevalent, but the story of someone who turns their life around, creates a successful career, and lives a happy life rarely gets told. Those who are hiring have preconceived notions about previous incarcerated individuals, and many jobseekers find the background check the end of a previously encouraging opportunity. Our tool might be able to help managers and owners see a person’s full picture, not just their criminal record. It might also be a place for managers and owners to advertise job openings.
Formerly Incarcerated Individuals
We are envisioning this as our main direct stakeholder. Having a steady income and being able to support oneself is one of the first steps to starting a new life. However, finding a job can be a very challenging endeavor for previously incarcerated individuals. This can often result in homelessness, a loss of autonomy, and sometimes reincarceration. The first step is researching what can be done to make this task easier, what tools we could create to help, and how to make this an enticing tool to use. The end product may revolve around job searching, but could also be a reference for other tools that exist, and could also help with educating the general public what it really means to be previously incarcerated while allowing these individuals’ stories to be told.
User Research
Surveys
Of those incarcerated, all of them use indeed and no other job board.
Only 3 people reported being convicted of a crime.
One respondent had both a misdemeanor and felony.
The distribution is skewed lower for the general population, but our sample size for incarcerated people was very small, and older than our general population.
The incarcerated population had less employment gaps on their resume than the general population and seemed less affected by them than the general population
Career Coaching was used more by formerly incarcerated individuals than the average population, but both reported it is only marginally effective.
Resume coaching was reported to be used more by incarcerated persons and to be much more effective for them. In our user interviews many formerly incarcerated people also mentioned need for these services and lack of access due to inflexible hours.
The purpose of this survey was to better understand career search methods and barriers among people, particularly those who are formerly incarcerated. This research method was appropriate because channels it was distributed in are relatively safe from survey spam. This survey was distributed at Peer Seattle, on one of the researchers facebook pages, their LinkedIn, in a substance abuse recovery facebook group, several of the researchers family and friends pages, and on a Discord channel of friends of that researcher. These distribution methods were used to get a broad sample from a diverse range of respondents and to target communities that are more likely to have formerly incarcerated individuals. Great care was taken to ensure that all demographic data possible was collected such as Age, Ethnicity, Income, Disability status, gender identity, veteran status, household size, employment status, etc. The key questions included information about Criminal History, Employment Background, Resources Available, Efficacy of these resources, and many more. If anything more information was collected than may have been useful, but there are questions with information that surprised us.
After letting the survey run for one week, there were 18 respondents, 17 of which were qualified, and 3 of which were formerly incarcerated, and only 2 of those served time in prison. Our incarcerated population was older and more caucasian than the general respondents. The survey showed that people who are formerly incarcerated benefit the most from peer to peer resume coaching and are more likely to receive this service than others in the population. It was discovered that those who are formerly incarcerated only use Indeed and no other job board, but the reasons were not uncovered in the follow up question. Employment gaps seemed to affect the general survey population more than the incarcerated survey population and the incarcerated population had fewer resume gaps, which suggests that those who did respond may have had time to rebuild their careers. The most surprising finding was that none of those who responded had access to educational or vocational services in prison. It is hard to get definitive results from our survey since the sample size was so small and the incarcerated population was composed entirely of white people between 40 and 65.
Interviews
Note that names have been altered to anonymize identities.
Stakeholder Interview: Marc Jacobson
Drew King conducted an interview with Marc Jacobson, owner and operator of a three-quarter-way house for sex offenders. He was interviewed with the aim of discovering what kinds of services formerly incarcerated people use. This research method may not have been appropriate since Marc is a family member of one of the researchers. Questions were designed to inquire about common challenges faced by tenants in maintaining employment, the impact on their ability to pay rent, resources available to them, and potential barriers to following through with resources.
Themes from this interview centered around the struggles of formerly incarcerated people adjusting to life after being released from prison. Tenants who spent a long time in prison had a tendency to be stuck in the past and unable to adjust to the present cultural climate. Even those who have employment struggled to meet their most basic needs, relying on welfare programs and stealing from Marc. The most surprising issue was the lack of follow-through when it came to employment resources among formerly incarcerated people. Marc struggled to understand the reasons why these individuals tend not to pursue vocational services. These themes show that existing support services may not be adequately addressing the needs of people who have survived the carceral system.
User Interview: Sharon LaMont
Taylor Richmond did the interview with Sharon, a previously incarcerated individual. The purpose of the interview was to better understand the experiences of someone looking for a job after they have been released from prison. The research method was appropriate because we got to hear about those experiences straight from someone who lived them. Questions were asked about some of their experiences while incarcerated, what types of jobs she had applied for, what resource she did or did not utilize to help in that process, what the interview process was like for her, where the job interview seemed to fall apart (if she did not get the job), and where she thinks the process could be more helpful for previously incarcerated individuals.
Two of the biggest takeaways from the interview had to do with background checks and the resources offered by the state once an individual is released. While going through an interview process, Sharon found the background check was the stage where things would fall apart. Even if things seemed to be going well, once the company did the background check, they would completely ghost her. She mentioned that even while in prison she had no write-ups or disciplinary action. But a background check doesn’t tell the full story, it just displays her criminal record. Also, Sharon noted that resources offered by the state to help her find a job usually sent her on a wild goose chase. She instead was more interested in finding any menial job (in her case a fast food restaurant) to start somewhere and work her way back up.
User Interview: Emmanuel Levi
Manny, a formerly incarcerated individual, was interviewed by Drew King to gain insight into the employment needs of this population. The interview was conducted in his home. The research method may not have been appropriate, since Manny is a friend of one of the interviewers. The questions asked included: What do you do for work? After incarceration, did your work change, and if so, how? Were you offered employment resources while incarcerated or after, and if so, what were you offered? Did you use them? These questions were asked with the intent to gain insight into challenges faced by formerly incarcerated individuals in finding stable employment. This methodology also gained insight into the accessibility of the resources provided to support their job search.
The findings suggest that Manny faces numerous barriers to securing employment. Manny's beauty school license expired while he was in prison, and he is now facing barriers to getting it renewed, such as the expense and failing the pretest. Although Manny was offered employment services after his release, he declined them due to the distance of the location, indicating that the lack of accessibility may be a significant obstacle for formerly incarcerated individuals.
Manny's values mirror that of other user interviews conducted in that he likes flexible work hours. He has been cutting hair privately for friends without a license, which allows him to set his own schedule and make ends meet. He also expressed that jobs offered to people with criminal records are often limited to janitorial and manual labor roles, which he finds unappealing.
These results suggest that there is a need for more accessible employment services. Additionally there is a need for greater flexibility in job opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, including those who hold professional licenses. These licenses may expire while someone is incarcerated and it would reduce recidivism to offer support to incarcerated people who need their professional licenses renewed.
User Personas
Jordan Miller
Maria Barbar
Conclusion
In this document, our group has examined existing solutions for lack of employment of formerly incarcerated individuals, while also looking at stakeholders and information on the needs of the group we intend to help. The main group of stakeholders for this project is the formerly incarcerated individuals seeking job opportunities. Some other stakeholders include business owners or hiring managers and halfway house managers. There are a number of existing solutions combating unemployment of formerly incarcerated people, including vocational training programs, the Felony Record Hub career board, and the Ban the Box policy. These solutions each have a unique method to help formerly incarcerated people, but they also fall short in many areas, including accessibility or not accounting for other loopholes.
Due to our limited number of respondents, our survey data was limited and likely skewed by demographics. The findings indicate that formerly incarcerated respondents all use Indeed and no other job board. Additionally the findings indicate that they use career and resume coaching more than the other respondents. From our interviews, we found that many formerly incarcerated people struggle to adjust to life after prison, and resources offered for them often don't sufficiently meet their needs or prove helpful in finding employment. Jobs that are available to this population generally lack flexibility and can be limited in the scope of all professions. With this new information and data, our group will now turn to our own solution. We will consider what we have learned about lack of accessibility and limited opportunities to create a solution that benefits all parties involved, with the main goal of decreasing unemployment, underemployment, and recidivism of formerly incarcerated individuals.
Bibliography
Avery, B., & Lu, H. (2022, November 29). Ban the box: U.S. cities, counties, and states adopt fair hiring policies. National Employment Law Project. Retrieved April 27, 2023
Ban the box. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2023
Learning & Working Programs. Learning & Working Programs | Washington State Department of Corrections. Retrieved April 27, 2023
Leins, C. (2019, September 10). ‘ban the box’ laws could negatively impact minorities - US news. More Data Needed to Determine Whether 'Ban the Box' Laws Work. Retrieved April 27, 2023
Maurer, R. (2021, October 19). Ban-the-box movement goes viral. SHRM. Retrieved April 27, 2023
Wang, L., & Bertram, W. (2022, February 8). New Data on formerly Incarcerated People's employment reveal labor market injustices. Prison Policy Initiative. Retrieved April 27, 2023
WP Company. (2021, December 1). Prisons are training inmates for the next generation of in-demand jobs. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 27, 2023
Zoukis, C. (2022, May 10). Vocational training in prison. Law Offices of Grant Smaldone. Retrieved April 27, 2023