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Automated Restricted
Housing Record

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in recent years has

pivoted to focus more on rehabilitation, education, and re-entry.

For most offenders, this has meant more time outside and more education, but restricted housing units operate under different rules. The ARHR team worked with policy

makers and institutions through out the state to accurately track all information previously filled out on the form 114-A. We also managed to increase how much time outside, offenders in Restricted Housing Units are getting.

What is an RHU?
Restricted Housing Units are for offenders that continue to commit crimes inside the prison. This used to be called solitary
confinement.
My Role
Lead UX Design
2023 - 2024
Unique Challenge
Remote research was not an option, so all research was in person, at RHU's all over the state. Some units required defensive vests to be worn at all times.
Outcome
94% time reduction for Custody Officers and 93% timr reduction for Seargents. Offenders getting 4-5x time outside. Over 4000 users!

Big Problems

Rehabilitation

Data supports that offender behaviour & mood improves when they spend more time outside but transporting offenders can be dangerous and takes time

Staff hours spent

Everything an inmate does when in an RHU is offered by custody and that offering and response has to be recorded in the 114-A. This takes a ton of time and is situation dependent.

Auditing

Recorded Offerings were being done by hand and were impossible to audit. A team of 12 analysts could spend a month auditing 1 restricted housing unit.

Specific Problems

Policy Update

Policy makers were disconnected from the experince of Custody Officers and Seargents. Suggested policies were initially unrealistic.

Compliance

Being out of compliance with policy means lawsuits. CDCR wanted to make sure it was clear they were in compliance regardless of the policy.

Custody Officers

The officer with the best handwriting was locked into this role. With many officers already stepping up for unapproved overtime, stricter recording rules with would not be prioritized.

Seargents

Seargents running these units would dedicate an entire day of their week towards putting the 114-A report together for their unit.

Audits

Regular Audits for each RHU are required, expensive, take forever and do not have clear results due to paper forms being illegible.

Process Overview

The most unique parts of this project were the research & testing environment, working with policy makers, and optimizing reports per each type of RHU unit for auditors.

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Discovery & Framing

- UX / user research
- Problem prioritization & feasibility
- Policy Collaboration

Prototyping & Testing

- Location based rosters
- Bulk actions for activities & appointments
- Comments for unique situations
- Testing was a mix of digital and paper based

Pushing to Prod & Beyond

- 1 month pilot at CSP Sac
- 2-3 month complete adoption time for other institutions
- Data, reporting & audits

Solutions

High Level

Users needed to record offerings & responses to different activities for a chunk of the unit all at once, then go back and make edits to individuals with unique responses & situations. Officers are expected to observe and note any patterns of behaviour.

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Recording Specifics

Activites had an appointment subcategory that matched the users mental model. Each activity also had it's own set of rules regarding what needed to be recorded.

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Meals

Each Offender is always offered 3 meals a day, even if they were not present for when meals were initially offered.

Yard (Outside Time)

Between offering, recording, transporting, and bringing offenders back on upon request, yard time can be quite complicated. Especially when you consider that some offenders take up to 5 officers to transport.

Impact

97%

reduction in RHU based lawsuits against the state

90%

reduction in time spent recording RHU activities

4-5x

time outside for inmates

User Quotes

The 114-A process is easy as hell, I actually have time to eat lunch now and I don't stay late anymore finishing it up.

Custody Officer
San Quentin

My life is 90% better than it was because of this app and these reports. Everything is here, and I don’t have to track people down because I can’t read their writing. My weekly audit takes me 30 minutes instead of all day.

Seargent
CSP Sacramento

Officers love it, and it is only getting easier for them. This used to take 2 guys all day. Now it takes one about 15 minutes!

Seargent
Pelican Bay

This process used to take weeks. Now it takes us a few hours. We can trust the data coming in to us.

Auditor
HQ Sacramento

Lessons Learned

This appliation is a great example of how technoology can help make government processes more efficient and open the way for a more human experince through technology. Without the ARHR app, the officers in these units would have never had the time to carry out new policies that benefit inmates, the state, CDCR and taxpayers.

Major Challenges

  1. Research environment was hostile. More time preparation & education would have been helpful.
  2. Working with policy makers who are seperated from the day to workings of an RHU takes time, communication.
  3. Sites lacked infrastructure to build a tablet solution & having an additional desktop PC installed in the unit was uncertain.

Sometimes, building great software requires a team to fill in the gaps of whatever needs to be done. The Project Manager from CDCR had no knowledge of the processes within an RHU but was willing to support us in having conversations with policy makers which made this possible. Within the first 3 months of operation, this app lowered the amount of lawsuits coming out of RHUs to pay for itself. It also lowered the amount of overtime needed in these units and enabled custoody officers to focus on other important tasks.

We got an award!!

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